Vampire Trinity
by Grizzly98
Summary: Rogue Vampires of the night and hunters to prey who know them only as monsters. A new family is formed from the grievance of time and love never known one could have. Follow this family as they find out what it takes to move on from the scars of their pasts into a brighter and more hopeful future.
1. Ashes and Dust

**We interrupt your regularly scheduled fanfiction for breaking news. Lugratsu week may have come and gone but you can't blame me for wanting to get this out there to celebrate it. Have fun, get your heart broken, and I'll see y'all later. ^.^**

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Vampire Trinity

Chapter 1

Ashes and Dust

A soft whimper rouses him, the dreary edges of his dreams being left behind to seek out the sound. With nare a whine he rolls over, pale chest reflecting in the moonlight seeping through a crack in the cabin's wall.

He gets up, coal eyes landing on the wicker basket standing across the room. His feet follow his eyes, leading him to stand beside the basket. Unknowingly his lips tilt into a small smile, revealing sharpened incisors in the moonlight.

Leaning one hand on the edge of the basket, with the other he strokes midnight blue hair, crooning softly when a small hand clasps his thumb.

"It'll be alright, Silver. Momma will be back before sunrise." The babe whimpers again, his navy blue eyes locking onto his father's.

The man raises his other hand, palm up so that it's in the infant's sight and smiles, watching as the palm begins to glow blue. After a second, a large snowflake hovers over the man's palm. The babe giggles, his small arms reaching for it when there's a disturbance in the air current traveling through the one-roomed cabin.

He doesn't bother to turn around, his sensitive nose already picking up the scent of water lilies he knows so well.

Arms wrap around his middle and blue hair falling in long locks enter his vision. He hums, looking down into dark blue eyes.

"Hello beautiful." He leans down, his lips brushing hers in a ghost of a kiss. "Did you feed well?"

Even if he can taste it on her lips, he more than knows one feeding is sometimes not enough.

She smiles, reaching up to kiss him in return. When she pulls away, the moonlight catches the crimson red against the plaster pale skin of her neck. "It could've been a better night, my darling, but I fed enough for both of us."

He eyes the dripping liquid with a dry swallow. It's too dangerous for them both to feed on the same night and though he'd gladly give up his feeding night for her to feed herself and their son, his hunger is beginning to weigh heavily on him.

After a minute he finds his voice, giving her a pained smiled. "I'm happy to hear it, Juvia."

The bluenette frowns, one hand rising to settle on his cheek. She rubs her thumb over the pale skin, her brows furrowing in concern at the weak flow under her fingers.

"Gray, darling. Why did you give me tonight?"

Gray swallows, turning away to look at their son once more. "I can wait to feed, Juvia. You and Silver are more important."

She scowls. "Gray, you've given me the last three feedings. You and I both know it's not healthy for you to go so long. What if you were to turn on someone in the daylight?"

Knowing she's right he sighs in resignation, looking back at her.

"I just don't want something to happen to you two. I don't know what I'd do if—" He can't finish the thought. There are hunters out there, those that hunt their kind. He's more afraid of what might happen if they were to be found then the hunger ravenously clawing at his stomach.

Juvia smiles softly, her thumb rubbing circles over his cheek. "There are drunk sailors in the harbor. It should only take you a few hours to hunt among those and get back before the sun rises." He opens his mouth to object but Juvia presses her thumb to his lips, quieting him. "Silver and I will be fine. Now go before it gets any later in the night."

He gives her a mixed look. When she doesn't bend he moves away, reaching for the undershirt draped on the back of the rocking chair.

By the time he's completely dressed, Juvia is sitting in the rocking chair, their son clamped to her breast to feed. Gray smiles softly, burning the sight into his memory. They may have millennia more to live but he doesn't want to forget here and now.

Eventually, he has to turn away. The night is slowly passing by and he needs more than one feed to even take the edge off his hunger. He pauses at the door, glancing back at her. "I will be back before the dipper has set, don't miss me too much."

Juvia giggles, watching him open the door and step out. "My darling Gray, I miss you already."

With that, he closes the door behind him and turns out into the night. Almost immediately his coal eyes flash red allowing him to see as clearly as if it was day. Then he takes off, running full throttle down the dirt road leading to town. His breath remains even, his footfalls light, and leaving nare a hint of his passing.

The distance between their cabin and the town by buggy on a clear day can be covered in three hours. By the time the smoke of fires burning in homes reaches his sensitive nose, the moon has barely moved across the sky.

Gray, however, surprises himself when he realizes that he'd miscalculated and is forced to dive into the woods bordering the road to dodge a horse-drawn carriage. While he waits for the carriage to move on by he leans against a tree, taking a deep breath to focus on the surrounding area.

Off in the distance, he sees the steeple of the church, the bronze bell perched at its peak sitting quiet for the night. Around the holy building, more houses are laid out, a couple with candlelight slipping through the glass while most are dark; their occupants in bed for the night.

Every few minutes the light of several lanterns appear at different points across the city, swaying to signify a green coated guard on duty.

Once he's sure of his safety Gray moves on, picking up his pace to make it across the town before one of the guards on duty can see him and raise the alarm. Too many kills in the surrounding area have put them on edge. Dimly, he makes note to bring up to his love about moving again, to keep the humans from discovering what they are.

The raven-haired man pauses on the docks, ducking behind some crates to avoid the guard turning the corner and opens his ears, nearly stumbling in hunger at the many hearts beating in the ship moored to the pier.

He eyes the guard now walking out of sight then pushes away from the crates, keeping his lithe, lean body hunched to avoid detection from the crewmen on the ship.

A small part of himself rationalizes the humans would never be able to see him in the dark but a larger part still calls for self-preservation. This part pushes for him to climb the anchor chain rather than risk a run up the gangplank.

Reaching the top of the chain he launches over the railing, his feet silent as they hit the deck and rolls behind a barrel. When no screaming or yelling starts Gray gets up, walking confidently down the stairs to the main deck.

It's not the first time he's hunted among the ship-men so it comes as no surprise when the sailor stumbling below deck barely acknowledges him with more than a nod.

Gray merely smirks, eyeing the sailor before he writes him off for the heavy stench of sweat, blood, and alcohol coming off him in waves.

He waits, counting four guards passing the docks then follows the sailor through the door below deck. His hearing guides his path, leading him to the Captain's quarters.

In front of the door hung with the Captain's hat, Gray pauses, slowly lifting the handle and pushing it open. Inside the room, he finds the Captain of the ship wide awake, his tired gaze traveling some maps until he looks up, glaring at Gray.

The Captain is a gray-haired man, wrinkles of laughter and sun deeply lining his face, but his eyes are bright if a little glazed with exhaustion.

"Damn it, Sanji, I thought I told you not to bother me unless it's important."

To find the Captain so out of it he'd confuse a stranger for a crewman, Gray finds it more than amusing. He chuckles. "The last time I checked my name was not Sanji."

Captain squints, reaching for his glasses sitting on the desk in front of him. "Who are you? You don't sound like any of my men." He slides on the spectacles and goes wide-eyed in shock. "No, no, no."

Gray grins, his crimson eyes shining in the light of the lantern. Crossing the cabin in two large steps, he attacks the Captain. The old man barely has time to think before two incredibly strong arms immobilize his body and...

He releases a gasp of pain, his lifeblood escaping from the marks left by the two long incisors dug into his neck. Gray drinks deeply ignoring the weakening struggle of the old Captain. When the Captain finally falls still, Gray drops him back into the chair and steps back.

Energy floods his veins once more, his senses increasing dramatically now he's been able to have a taste. Along with the burst of energy, his hunger makes itself fully known. Every heartbeat of the crew on board the ship is a siren's call to his cavernous hunger, one that pleads for him to seek and fulfill.

The taste of blood, the call of the hunt, it pulls the vampire from the Captain's cabin and to the officers' quarters. Each room he enters he strikes quickly, taking the kill before the sailors even realize their death is upon them.

As he stumbles out of the cabin of his fifth kill, he comes to a stop in front of a Sailor standing frozen in fear in the hall. Gray stands straight, the blood coating his shirt and neck a horrifying addition to his calm demeanor.

He smirks, eyeing the sailor as a predator does prey. "Oh I do hope you're smart enough to keep your mouth shut." He wipes his chin, licking the blood off the back of his hand. "After all, I hate it when my food begs for mercy."

Even though the sailor is drunk, he realizes the danger standing before him and screams, a very high pitched sound that causes Gray to flinch. Then he turns tail, taking off down the hall toward the steps leading out into the night.

The raven-haired vampire snarls in anger, setting his hands on the floor. A blue mist shrouds them. "Ice make floor!"

What had mere hours before formed an innocent snowflake for his son, now forms a layer of ice across the floor and walls of the ship, causing the sailor to slide back toward Gray.

The sailor constantly slips and slides trying to get back on his feet. Gray calmly approaches him, walking as if the ice isn't an inch thick covering the wooden floors.

"I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut." He snarls, wrapping one hand around the sailor's neck and hoisting him up the wall. "Your incessant noise bothers my ears." Then he smirks. "I've had my fill for the night but I suppose one more won't hurt."

He leans in. The sailor's breath hastens as long incisors stained red graze his neck. Knowing his time is up, the sailor closes his eyes, sending a prayer to the gods. Closer, millimeter by millimeter his death inches.

Gray screeches, stumbling away from the sailor, his hand on his own neck, wrapped around the wave tattoo that lines the pale skin. His hands shaking, Gray turns away from the sailor, immediately darting for the stairwell out into the night.

His neck, it burns as hot as any fire. A feeling that holds more fear than any hunter could possibly instill. He barely notices leaping the railing to land on the deck. Ignoring the guard, he whisks by. The buildings of the town disappear in a blur. None of it matters in the rising wave of fear for his mate and their child.

The fresh energy he'd gained from the sailors is put to use, pushing the limits of his inhuman speed. Even so, it feels like an eternity before he's sprinting down the road to their home.

A home cloaked in flames so bright it blinds him to look at it.

In front of the burning cabin, he finds a familiar carriage, the very same he'd passed on his way into town and without a second thought he kills the horses. He turns, eyeing the blaze in rage until he spots a figure laying on the ground by the trees.

Gray rushes over, a choked gasp escaping him when he recognizes the long blue hair. It is a gruesome sight, the blood—her blood—that discolors her once beautiful dress. Underneath the blood, he can barely smell their son's scent among the burned cloth and soot. He turns her over, one hand under her head.

"Juvia, please speak to me." He leans forward, his forehead against hers. "Please, Juvia, please, please speak to me."

She shudders, a cough causing the dribble on her lip to splatter his face. Then she opens her eyes, if only barely. Juvia gasps, one hand reaching up to grab his arm. "Gray, you have to go."

Tears escape his eyes. He shakes his head but she isn't done.

"Take our son and go." Her breath shudders and she closes her eyes in concentration. "I won't be able to make it."

He snarls, shaking his head harder. "No, Juvia, I won't leave you. Not again."

She smiles softly as she raises a hand to cup his face and her body begins to ripple. As it does, their son rises from the waves, sleeping silently at odds with the chaos around them.

His hands hover between the two. Take his son and protect him or hold on to his mate, his mate that is supposed to be with him for eternity.

"Please my darling Gray. Take Silver, show him the world as you always promised me." Her hand begins to fall.

Gray can't do both. He can't catch her and hold their son as well. So he does what he must, he allows her hand to fall to the ground. Instead, he huddles Silver closer to him, overly aware of the babe's whimpers.

The mark around his neck pulses, the deep oceanic blue draining from it, and he openly cries, howling to the night sky his grief.

Cackling sounds from behind him and Gray looks up, his crimson eyes swirling in anger and grief at the two figures approaching through the shifting smoke.

"My, my. You vamps just keep getting weaker and weaker."

Gray snarls, clutching his son as close to his chest as possible without smothering him.

"Come now, Madame Knightwalker, let me put this poor excuse for a vampire down."

He can't help it. A shiver of fear travels through him when he hears the name. When the tip of a sword appears at his neck he tilts his head back, glaring at the armored red-headed woman standing before him.

She ignores her partner for the moment, smirking maliciously at Gray. "So you're the ice vampire that has been living in these parts for the last fifty years. I had been wondering when I was gonna find your little settlement."

Silver whimpers and Gray tucks him into his chest. He partially lifts a lip, snarling at the woman.

"I don't care who you are or how many of my kind you've killed. You will die for killing my mate, I will make sure of it."

A darkness even blacker then the shadows cast from the fire descends upon the Hunter. She adjusts her wrist ever so slightly causing the tip of the sword to knick Gray's skin.

"You're out of your mind vampire." A laugh comes from behind the woman, drawing Gray's eyes to the shorter man standing behind her.

In the light of the fire, it's nearly impossible to see him apart from the shadows lining his pale face. The remainder of him hidden by the black clothing he wears.

Knightwalker snarls, her grip on her sword tightening. "Shut it, Hughes, before I throw you in the fire."

"Shutting up, Ma'am." He can't help it. The vampire snickers at the man's sudden obedience.

The sound brings their attention back to him and Knightwalker smirks. "Any last words before you follow your partner to hell?"

Gray opens his mouth to retort but another voice cuts him off.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

He bends over, narrowly dodging the barrage of flames that appears overhead. Knightwalker avoids it as well, though her partner isn't as lucky, receiving a face full of flames from the attack.

The sound of a pair of rapidly pounding feet causes the grieving vampire to breathe a sigh of relief.

Hearing a yelp he looks up, tears of gratitude pooling in his eyes at the sight of the pink-haired man standing in front of him. As if the salmon pink hair isn't enough to set the man apart, he wears a white-scaled scarf over his sleeveless coat, and white harem pants tied halfway up his calves. His hands, rough and calloused from hard work are lit by bright orange flames.

The man snarls, bringing his hands up to guard his center.

"Gray, are you alright?"

Gray can't help himself. He chuckles in relief, lowering his head to look at his son. "Yeah, Natsu, we're okay."

The pinkette nods, looking over his shoulder past Gray to Juvia's limp body. "Sorry we didn't get here earlier."

He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. There's nothing we couldn't have done."

Natsu turns back to the Hunters, his jade eyes swirling crimson. "Maybe not but now I can burn some hunters and not get yelled at for it."

The pink-haired vampire jumps back to avoid the sword slashing through the smoke then aims a kick at the swordswoman. "Fire Dragon's claw!"

He wants to fight, he so sorely does not only to avenge his mate but to protect his son as well. Only with the babe in his arms, he's helpless to do anything save guard the child. Until someone gently lays a hand on his shoulder.

It's the scent of strawberries and vanilla that has Gray taking his eyes off the fight to look up at the blonde standing beside him.

Her normally chocolate eyes are swirling crimson in anger, glaring at the fight in front of them before she looks down and they soften. She kneels, her long legs folding underneath her, and holds her hands out to him.

"I'll protect Silver, you go get those bastards back for killing Juvia." Gray nods, handing the now whimpering Silver to the blonde and gets to his feet.

"Thank you, Lucy."

She smirks, her lengthened incisors flashing eerily in the flames. "You're welcome. Now go."

He needs no more encouragement. Dark blue mist gathers around his hands and almost immediately the ground around him frosts over, ice quickly building to deadly heights despite the raging flames.

As Natsu dodges a sweep of the glittering sword a wave of cold against his flaming skin catches his attention and he grins, looking over his shoulder to see his best friend for millennia standing at his side.

"Hey, Knightwalker!" The pinkette looks ahead when Gray calls out, noticing they've gained her attention and he grins.

"You've picked the wrong vampires to mess with." Both men slide into a twin fighting stance, their backs to each other, and their hands glowing with their elements.

Gray glares at her, silently vowing her death to the gods. "Are you ready—"

"To fight fire and ice?" The words, spoken simultaneously by both vampires carries a sense of danger unnatural by all accounts.

By an unspoken signal, the men attack together, their in sync movements speaking of much experience working together.

Away from the battle, Lucy climbs one of the numerous trees before focusing on Silver, humming a soft lullaby she knows Juvia would sing to calm him down. It works, the babe settling to suck on his thumb as he sleeps and Lucy sighs, her eyes finding their way back to the raging battle.

"You're lucky, little one. Your mother died to protect you and now your father is fighting to protect you. Most of our kind would never have that chance. Well," She pauses, watching closely as a combined spell smashes the carriage to smithereens. "not unless we join a coven."

Lucy snorts. "It might sound ideal but I promise you, a coven is nothing but bad news. It'll be better for you and your father to avoid those places, especially one as young as yourself."

Her lips lift in amusement when Knightwalker's partner is sent flying off the property and she looks down at Silver, one sharp nail rising to trace his soft cheeks. "I will make you one promise though. This is the same promise I made your mother so pay attention little one. Now I can't promise to always protect you," She smiles softly, her finger settling to rest on his lips. "Our kind wanders so often and so is bound to die by one way or another. There is no use promising something so false but I will promise this."

The battle is over, both men watch as the hunter falls to her knees; a fatal stab wound draining the malice from her features. As Natsu walks over to grab the corpse and throw it in the fire he pauses, turning his head to listen to the blonde. Gray follows his example with a look of shock.

"I promise that so long as I breathe I will help to support both you and your father. I will guide you as you grow, teach you the way of the arcane, and I will make sure your idiot father doesn't get into too much trouble while he and Natsu teach you the art of the hunt."

Power arises within her fingertips, the wind lifting with the arcane energy flowing through the blonde and Silver whimpers, clenching his eyes tighter shut as the promise seals itself.

"Luce." The blonde looks up from the babe, only now noticing the battle is over. As she prepares to leap down from the tree, Natsu beats her to the punch, leaping up to hang from a branch beside her. He grins, looking down at his lifelong friend. "What do you say, Ice princess, wanna teach your son how to be the greatest of our kind?"

The grieving Vampire pauses, looking back at his dead mate. One question runs through his mind. Can he raise his son by himself? Teach him how to hunt and use his magic—whatever it maybe—to its fullest? Gray looks back to his friends, suddenly struck by the sight that meets him and though tears pool in his eyes he grins.

"Yeah, Flame Brain, let's teach him to be the best." And the tears fall. Tears of relief that even among the ashes and dust he's not alone.

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 ***Clears throat* So besides the fact I've been hammering my head into a concrete wall for the past three weeks I thought it'd be fun to take a slight detour. I've had this story planned since about the end of DKQ, except it was planned as a NaLu/ brotherly Gratsu. You know NaLu helps Gray get over his grief and in turn he helps them. When I heard about Lugratsu week I decided to go ahead and revamp the idea. It didn't take much, change a few lines here and there and voila a Lugratsu is born. Except I have friends who love drama and disagree with stereotypes about as much as I do and so what y'all see here is born.**

 **I hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter and I'll see y'all back here next week, hopefully with a new chapter of LBB as well.**

 **Grizzly out for the night.**


	2. Snack Time

**Good Mor- wait it's afternoon already? *Shrugs* Eh, time flies when you're lost in a universe. Anyway I know my returning readers are expecting Life Behind Bars but ya gotta give me a break. I'm stuck in between a rock and a hard place so I took my only escape and turned to writing this. Which, seeing as this story is only like ten chapters won't take long.**

 **Anyway, just something I want to point out to y'all before you get started. While yes, this will end up as a Lugratsu it's not starting that way. At this point in time the trio are simply friends that learn to become something more as they raise Silver. Their relationship will evolve with time but until them it revolves around each of their interactions with the little Vampire and what they are to him in their strange family. That will become more clear as you read. Speaking of which, go and I'll see y'all later.**

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Chapter 2

Snack Time

 _Da thump._

"Good morning!"

 _Da thump._

"Good morning! How's the Mrs.?"

 _Da thump_

His mouth waters. He can feel his pointy teeth poking at his tongue. And the call of food is right there. Mere feet away from the shade of the alley.

Sapphire eyes spin crimson with want, his small legs lead him on. Every step he takes brings him closer to the sweet smell of food.

 _Da thump._

It beats in his ears, whispering a melodious song to guide him. Only a few more steps now. Just a few more steps and the honey-sweet drink enticing him will be his.

The end of the alley. The end of the shade. The beginning of the beautiful sunshine he's forbidden to step into. It's just a step away.

 _Da thump._

His mouth hangs open, drool dripping from his lips. One more step and he'll have his first hunt.

A hand reaches out from behind him, snagging him by the back of his ragged shirt and lifting his short legs high above the ground.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Where do you think you're going Little-bit?"

He groans, midnight-blue hair falling into his eyes as he turns to the face the pinkette holding him. "Daddy I was hunting!"

At the end of the alley, the man carrying the basket of fish moves on, unaware of the danger hiding in the shadows.

Silver huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. "See what you did? I lost my meal."

The pinkette chuckles, setting Silver on his shoulders. "Hey now, Silver. I thought Mama Lucy told you-you couldn't go hunting yet?"

"It's not fair, I'm already fitty." Silver growls, his tiny fists grabbing Natsu's hair to not fall from the older vampire's shoulders.

Natsu grins, walking through the alleys out of town into the surrounding forest. "You might be fifty in human years," The pinkette corrects the child calmly. "But to our kind, you're only a toddler that's a little too big for his pantaloons."

That draws a giggle from the little one. Silver bends down, his legs wrapping around Natsu's neck to keep him from falling, and looks into Natsu's jade eyes.

"You're the only one who calls them pantaloons anymore, Daddy Natsu. Even Mama Lucy calls them trousers or britches."

The pinkette arches an eyebrow. "Is that so?" Silver nods, his expression serious. "Well, then I guess I'll just have to update my language and say that you, Little bit, are still too big for your britches if you think you're old enough to hunt."

Not having expected the argument he was sure he was gonna win turn against him Silver hunts for an answer. When one doesn't become immediately apparent he resorts to childishly sticking out his tongue at his father figure.

Natsu chuckles and turns his attention to the path they're on. He sticks to the shade, preferring passing under trees or awnings to walking in the open. A thought crosses his mind and he frowns, glancing at the horizon, in the direction of the late afternoon sun.

"Hey, Silver?" The boy hums, twisting Natsu's hair this way and that.

"Yeah, Daddy?"

The pinkette pauses under a stand of trees overlooking the town and sets Silver down, turning to kneel in front of him. Looking the boy in the eye he can't help but wonder when he became mature enough to be a father, and to a kid that _isn't his_ no less.

"Tell me something and tell me the truth. Mama Lucy and Daddy Gray told you not to go out in the sunlight right?"

Silver frowns but nods. "Yes, Daddy Natsu. They both said I couldn't leave the shade because I would be burned really really badly."

He furrows his brows in thought, watching the boy's body language. "So then how did you end up all the way in the village?"

The confusion and fear the boy is feeling disappears and he grins, pointing at the stream passing by a few trees away. "The water protected me."

Natsu arches an eyebrow. Silver steps away from him, approaching the stream. The elder vampire watches quietly as the boy steps into the stream, walking out into the middle where the sunlight breaks through the branches.

He's on his feet in seconds, rushing toward Silver until an incredible sight stops him.

The water rises up, covering Silver similarly to a cloak and then it freezes. A thin sheet of foggy ice covering the child from head to toe.

Silver giggles, turning to Natsu and holding up a hand. "See Daddy? The water protects me when I step into the sunlight."

Realizing his mouth is open, Natsu closes it, stepping out of the shade after the boy. He knows Gray has ice magic but to see the boy controlling both his mother and father's magic is disconcerting. More so since Silver is so young.

It bothers him, on a deeper level because the magic is the opposite of his own but he pushes the nudge away, more than familiar with it from his friend. He clears his throat, stepping into the stream after Silver.

"Come on, Little-bit. The water might be able to protect you but it's still a rule. You're not supposed to be in the sun."

As Silver pouts the ice melts, the water returning to the stream without leaving so much as a wet spot on his clothing. Still, Natsu picks him up and returning him to his perch on his shoulders, retreats to the shade.

After a little longer traveling the path a break appears in the trees. Approaching the break stone walls covered in vines with large tree roots reaching for the floor are the first thing the boy sees. Coming to a stop at the top of a wall overlooking a lake shows the walls run the entire length of the cover, allowing no easy escape from the natural formation.

Across from the lake, an old, worn down cabin comes into view. The wooden cabin doesn't look like much. More a stack of rotten trees stacked to look like a cabin against a rocky wall then an actual home. Though the clothes hung out to dry on a line strung between two large trees and the smoke trickling from the stone chimney lends a hint to someone being home.

Natsu looks down at the clear water and grins. "You ready for a dive Silver?" The boy giggles, tightly grabbing fistfuls of pink hair.

"Aye, Daddy!"

Natsu takes one large step off the cliff, relying on his inhuman abilities to keep his balance. "3...2...1…"

"Dive!" At Silver's command, he takes the leap, falling into the water below. Both scream in excitement, the exhilaration of the plunge adding to rush.

When they hit the water he waits until they stop descending before kicking upwards. Even though they can hold their breath longer than humans he doesn't want something to happen to Silver for being under too long.

The boy raps his knuckles against his head and Natsu speeds up, breaching the surface in nearly the same amount of time it took for them to dive. They gasp for breath, Silver giggling as they do.

Natsu shakes his head, swimming for the bank where he can see Lucy sitting in nothing more than a pair of shorts and a tank top. He arches an eyebrow, walking up to stand by her feet.

"Luce, not that I don't love your choice of clothing but where did you find that? Anyone in the village would throw a hissy fit if they saw you in it."

Silver descends Natsu's body in a matter of seconds. "Mama Lucy, you missed it. I had a lot of fun in the village." Shaking himself like a dog he runs up to Lucy and hugs her.

She smiles, patting his back. "While I'm glad to hear it, you don't realize how bad you scared us when we couldn't find you. And that's ignoring the fact that you're not supposed to be in the sunlight anyway."

The boy pouts, looking back at Natsu. "Daddy Natsu, you saw it. Tell her I didn't get hurt because the water protected me."

The blonde arches an eyebrow and Natsu sets a hand against Silver's head to gently push him in the direction of the cabin. "I'll tell her, Little-bit, you just head into the cabin before you really do get hurt by the light."

Lucy grins, leaning toward the boy. "And besides, Daddy Gray brought back a snack for you."

"A snack?" She nods. His eyes grow bright, swirling crimson in excitement and he licks his lips. "Do you think Daddy Gray will let me play with it tonight?"

The blonde shrugs. "I don't know, sweetheart. It depends on how soon you go apologize to him for disappearing without telling anyone where you were going."

That's all it takes. The five-year-old toddler races across the clearing on stubby legs, bursting through the door of the cabin and calling out for his father.

Lucy sighs, looking at Natsu as he settles beside her. "It's hard to believe it's already been fifty years since we agreed to help raise him."

He arches an eyebrow. "Does the Daddy and Mama titles still throw you too?"

She looks to the sky, her brows furrowing in thought. More than used to her thinking silences he takes to throwing stones into the pond while he waits.

After a while, she smiles softly. "Ya know, the first few years it shocked me but now I like it. I mean," She looks at him, her chocolate eyes full of hope and wanting. "I've always wanted children. Watching them grow and being able to show them the world we've watched change has always been a dream of mine. Raising Silver is sort of like the same thing."

Natsu grins, sitting back to lean against her. "Even if he isn't actually ours?"

She nods. "Honestly, I think the longer we do raise him the less we'll think of him as someone else's and more as ours."

The pinkette pulls away to look at her, a sliver of fear in his jade eyes. "Luce, you're not gonna leave me for Gray are ya?"

She falls quiet for a minute and snorts. "Natsu, you're an idiot." Seeing his hurt expression she wraps a hand around the back of his head, leaning closer to him. "But you're my idiot and I will never leave you."

"Never?" His eyes sparkle in amusement, his lips dancing dangerously close to hers.

She grins. "Never." With that, she kisses him. Her hands comb through his hair, her sharp nails lightly scratching his scalp. He growls, rolling over so she's settled in his lap.

Around them the sky grows dark, the sun setting beyond the horizon and the world comes to life. One by one the crickets wake up, lending their soft chirp to the night air. Across the clearing, a light blinks. It's only there for a second, flashing once then disappearing.

The flash repeats, this time coming from beside the pond and Lucy leans back, looking across the cove in time to see the lightning bugs begin their dance. She giggles, looking down at Natsu.

"Natsu, it would take death for me to leave you." She leans closer nuzzling his neck affectionately. "You are the one I want to be with. You're the one I want to spend my eternity with."

He sighs, turning his head to her. "You're right, Luce. I don't know what I was thinking."

They sit in silence, enjoying each other's presence until a squeak alerts them to the cabin door opening. As one they look up, their eyes immediately zeroing in on the brunette poorly attempting to slip away without notice.

"It would appear Gray let Silver have his snack after all." Natsu grunts in agreement, watching in intrigue as the woman stumbles away.

A small black shadow leaves the cabin not five minutes after her, keeping low to the ground and Natsu casts a glance at Lucy. "We've really gotta teach Little-bit how to hunt correctly."

She scowls, cuffing his head. "Idiot, he's only a toddler."

Natsu shakes his head, shaking off the hit and starts to get to his feet. Lucy slides off of him, standing up as well.

They know the brunette can't escape. The walls completely enclose the cove and are too high to climb. But to the pinkette, it's a gut feeling to ensure the small vampire doesn't get hurt while playing.

The woman looks back, catching sight of Silver's crimson eyes and she screams in fear. She pumps her feet, running to get away from the child.

Silver grins and runs after her, easily overtaking the woman. As she attempts to change direction, he leaps, landing on her shoulders. The woman stumbles, his slight but sudden weight sending her to the ground.

Natsu grins, looking at Lucy. "He's gonna be a natural."

The blonde rolls her eyes, pointing at the struggling woman. "Yeah, if he learns not to take too long."

They hear a yelp, looking to find the woman has rolled over and flattened Silver to the ground. As the woman rolls to her feet Natsu goes to run after her. Lucy grabs his arm, her grip like steel, and he turns to her, hissing a warning.

Unperturbed she holds a finger to her lips. _Wait_ , she tells him. Then she points at Silver. Natsu looks back, his eyebrows rising in shock when he sees the boy getting up. The young vampire shakes himself like a dog, easily shaking off the blow and resumes running after the woman.

"Geez Flame Brain." Both vampires barely cast a glance at their friend, having scented his approach. "You'd think I didn't warn Silver about his snack putting up a fight."

Lucy hums. "I thought you weren't gonna let him have it tonight?"

The raven-haired vampire shrugs though the duo doesn't see it.

"He told me what happened and apologized so I really can't be mad. Though, Lucy, I would like you to help me start training him in his magic."

She's stuck between a rock and a hard place. A twenty-foot tall rock wall is in front of her. A bloodthirsty toddler hiding in the copse of trees behind her. The brunette is too scared to even realize Silver is playing with her, practicing what he's seen and been told by his family.

Natsu holds up a hand, drawing their attention. All three vampires are intrigued, watching the boy ascend one of the trees around the terrified woman.

"That's an interesting way to do it." The pinkette murmurs, a frown pulling at his lips.

His friend follows his gaze, frowning in concern. "You're right. What is he thinking?"

Instead of being concerned Lucy grins, chocolate brown eyes turning on the men before her. "That's easy you two. It's something I told him."

"What?!" The exclamation catches the woman's attention. She looks at them, only now noticing the three adults. She stills, naively praying to her god they haven't noticed her.

Above, in the tree branches, Silver ignores the three talking. He knows they're there, he's known since Daddy Gray let his snack out. He's heard everything they've said but he ignores it, only listening to the siren's call the terrified woman's rapidly beating heart sings to him.

He takes a deep breath, his eyes locking onto the point he wants to land on, and he lets go. Though slight, his body slams down on his snack hard enough to send her crumbling to the ground. He yowls in success, bending down to sink his miniature white fangs into her neck.

Finally. After being taunted all day he gets to sate his hunger. With each gulp, the call quiets and as the woman beneath him passes out he lets go, looking up to find his parental figures slowly approaching.

The small vampire grins, crimson blood clear against his pale moonlit skin. "Did you see? I did it!"

Natsu chuckles, ruffling Silver's midnight blue locks. "Yeah, we did Little-bit. You keep practicing like that and one day you'll be a better hunter than me or Daddy Gray."

Silver beams at the praise, his toddler self excited to make his guardians proud. Lucy rolls her eyes, pulling a cloth from her back pocket as she kneels beside him.

"You did a very good job, sweetheart but you have to remember that technique isn't going to help you every time." She wipes his chin to clean off the blood despite his whines of protest.

When she puts the cloth away he looks to her, grinning again. "I know, Mama. I'm gonna learn more so I'll be able to catch my prey every way."

She smiles, patting his head gently and Gray moves to the unconscious woman, frowning when he hears how slow her heartbeat is.

"Silver?" The boy turns, still smiling.

"Yes, Daddy Gray?"

Gray nods at the woman, nudging her with a boot. "Do you want to keep her for another snack or do you want to finish her off?" When his son doesn't answer Gray arches an eyebrow. "Silver, you have to think carefully about this. If you keep this one you'll be able to have a snack every week but if you finish her off you'll only be able to feed when we do. We can't keep bringing them back here or we run the risk of being found."

Silver swallows, the feeling of feeding still tickling his throat. This is the first time he's been asked about what happens to his snacks. He's not used to having to think about it.

He's gone without them before, eating when the adults do every full moon, but that's left him with his stomach hurting by the time the next feed comes. The boy considers it carefully, comparing the hunger of going without to having the treat.

After a minute he makes a decision and looks at his father as seriously as a toddler can. "Can we keep it Daddy Gray?" As an afterthought of Lucy's lessons in manners he adds, "please?"

Gray nods. "Very well, but hear me now. She is your responsibility to take care of. If we find out you're not then she goes."

His son grins, racing forward to hug his legs. "Thank you, Daddy. I love you!"

Looking down at his grinning son, Gray smiles softly. Natsu and Lucy share a look, a silent conversation passing between them in the time it takes for the widowed father to reply softly, "I love you too, son."

* * *

 **Right, so I guess I should start with what I'm trying to do here is show how each of the three adults react with Silver. If you noticed it was more Natsu this chapter. Next it'll be Lucy and then Gray and you get the idea. In the meantime I'm rather enjoying writing how Silver sees things. Even if it's from a toddler's perspective this chapter.**

 **Next up, Review replies. My favorite part of the A/N.**

 ** _Shana,_ thanks, it's definitely a lot of fun to write. Especially when it comes to the trouble this group is getting into.**

 ** _Guest,_ Uh this story is rated T. If you wanted lemons and smexy times I'm afraid you've picked the wrong story. But if you want family and comfort and just a sprinkle of angst to make the story bittersweet then you've come to the write place.**

 ** _Stele!_ So so so so happy to you back 'round here. Glad to see you loved the chapter. I think you're really gonna get a kick of how our trio turns out. *Grins evilly***

 ** _WhatAnimeHasTaughtMe_ , nice name btw. Thank you. This is actually the first time I've written Lugratsu. I'm so used to brotherly Gratsu and of course the lovely NaLu that it's definitely new ground for me. I hope you enjoy where it goes.**

 ** _Kjacket,_ Like I said earlier. It's not a full blown Lugratsu as of yet. It will evolve over time. Of that I'm sure. As for it being completed. I always make sure to complete my stories. It's a petpeeve of mine that awesome stories are abandoned or forgotten but I also understand that irl drama gets in the way. I've had more then enough to deal with myself as of late.**

 ** _Mushi0131_ , Thank you for the compliments. I'm happy to see you're enjoying it.**

 **Right, before I sign off there's one more thing. My returning readers know this already but for the new readers. Whenever I get more then five reviews on a chapter I post a sneak peek for next week. Hope y'all enjoy it.**

 _He shakes his head to get rid of the already building snow then looks up the wall at the remaining thirty feet they have to climb. "Where are we going that we can't use the tunnels?"_

 _The little vampire enjoys playing in the tunnels, wandering into their depths and exploring or playing hide and seek with Daddy Natsu and Gray when he's not allowed outside during the day. But they also travel for a good distance, coming out near towns where good hunting resides._

 _His parents share a look, a glare he recognizes well as Mama Lucy's 'you made the mess now clean it up' glare causing his father to shudder under him._

 _Gray sighs, reaching for the next handhold. "Because, Silver, Daddy Natsu and I got into a fight near the last town we hunted in and we have to go in a different direction while the humans cool off."_

 ***Grins***

 **Grizzly out for the night.**


	3. Wolves and Curses

**Grizz: Pull the lever Deadpool!**

 **DP: *pulls lever***

 ***ground falls away underneath them***

 **Grizz: WRONG LEVVVVEEEERRRRR!**

 **Deadpool: *Sniggers* Gotta hand it to 'em. Kronk had the right idea. Please enjoy the chapter and Grizz and I will be back with more randomness later.**

* * *

Chapter 3

Wolves and Curses

The wind howls around him. Snowflakes kiss his skin, one stacking atop another to add to the thin shell already forming.

In the distance, wolves howl and he can guess the moon has long since risen above the trees.

He wonders how much snow it would take to reach the tops of the trees. Then his mind takes on a different course, wondering if _he_ could pile that much snow up. An idea of how he can possibly do it unfolds and his feet twitch, urging him to get up. Why can't he move again?

"Silver, focus!"

That's why. He flinches, straightening his posture. Off to his left, he hears the snow crunch. It's the only idea he has of where his Mama is. The only idea of where she stands within the snow flying around them.

Once more he turns his mind to the thick ice beneath him. Even deeper he crawls to the water still flowing.

"The water is a living being. Feel its heartbeat that is the push and pull of the current. Hear its call."

He's trying. He's trying so very hard to follow her directions but he can't find it. After a minute of hearing nothing, he growls, throwing his hands in the air and falling backward into the snow. When the snow crunches by his head he opens his eyes to find chocolate brown staring at him in sympathy.

Silver frowns, looking away from his mother figure when his stomach turns at the thought of upsetting her.

"I'm sorry, Mama."

Lucy settles beside him, tilting her head in mock confusion. "Why are you apologizing to me, Sweetheart?"

He sits up, still looking away from her. "Because I can't make magic like you or Daddy Gray and Natsu do."

The blonde smiles, reaching out to grab his hand. When he doesn't pull away she tugs on him gently—mindful of her own strength.

"Silver, do you wanna know a secret?" Knowing how much he's into learning secrets Lucy smiles when she sees him turn to watch her out of the corner of his eye. "Myself, Daddy Gray and Daddy Natsu have had over two millennia to practice our magic."

With a small tug she pulls him into her lap, quietly finding it amusing he still attempts to hide his face from her.

"To gain skill in anything takes time and you've only been practicing for half a century. Have some patience, I promise your magic will get better." Then she grins. "And when a Celestial Vampire makes a promise?"

Silver tilts his head, pretending to look thoughtful even though he already knows the answer. After a minute he gives her a mischievous look. "She breaks it?"

Playfully she scowls, poking him in the stomach. "No you silly goose. She keeps it." He giggles and she grins. "Ticklish are we?"

His eyes go wide and he holds up his hands. "No, no mama."

"Too late, I feel the tickle monster taking over!" She curls her fingers, swiftly attacking his stomach with quick light touches that has him laughing. He writhes in her grasp, unsuccessfully attempting to get away. After a minute she leaves him gasping for air with tears in his eyes. Though his smile is all it takes for her to know he enjoyed it.

When he catches his breath he gets up, allowing her to stand as well and she tilts her head to the cabin sitting quietly in the darkness.

"Let's go see if Daddy Gray and Daddy Natsu are ready."

Silver perks up, looking at her in excitement. "Where are we going, Mama?"

Walking to the cabin she looks down at him with an eyebrow arched.

"Don't you remember?" He shakes his head. "You, me, and Daddy Gray are going hunting tonight."

As she opens the door he frowns. "Why isn't Daddy Natsu coming with us?"

"Because I have to go somewhere, Little-bit." Lucy smiles, watching the now ten-year-old boy run to his secondary father figure.

Having seen him grow over the past hundred years she can't believe she ever thought against helping to raise the boy. Though, she glances at his father as another thought comes to mind.

As a whole family, they've grown closer. Both men have fallen into fatherly roles surprisingly quick, even if they themselves still act like children sometimes.

She can't deny it, their bond as a family, and their bond as friends has tightened until no longer is there a difference between what she feels for her pinkette compared to the raven-haired ice vampire.

Now if only she knew how they felt toward the idea…

"Where do you have to go?" Natsu smiles, crouching down to look the boy in the eye.

"While you, Mama Lucy, and Daddy Gray go hunting I have to go see a friend about a new settlement that's popped up a few miles South of us."

Silver pouts, lunging forward to wrap his arms around the pink-haired vampire's neck. "I wanna go with you."

His father figure just chuckles, patting his back in sympathy. "I wish I could take you, Little bit, but it's too dangerous and you're too young."

When he moves to stand back up he finds that Silver won't budge, adamant about going with him instead of with the others. Thankfully Gray sees his dilemma and steps forward, setting a hand on Silver's head.

"Come on, Silver, think of it this way. When we get back you'll be able to tell him yourself if you're successful in your hunt."

Though he doesn't like it, he knows his father has a point and so with a sigh he lets Natsu go, quietly watching him walk out the door into the moonlit night.

Lucy smiles, approaching the duo and lightly sets a hand on Gray's shoulder. "Let's go. We have quite a distance to cover before the sun rises."

With that, she too moves past them, once more setting out into the snowy night. Gray turns around, crouching to allow Silver to climb on his back, then he rises, walking after his friend.

At the bottom of the rock wall Silver frowns, observing as Lucy begins to climb the frozen stone.

"Mama?"

She looks down, smiling when she sees Gray already almost even with her. "Yes, sweetheart?"

It's only thanks to his enhanced hearing he's able to hear her above the howling wind but he knows that it could be better, that his parents can hear a heartbeat even through the howling wind and dancing snow flurries.

He shakes his head to get rid of the already building snow then looks up the wall at the remaining thirty feet they have to climb. "Where are we going that we can't use the tunnels?"

The little vampire enjoys playing in the tunnels, wandering into their depths and exploring or playing hide and seek with Daddy Natsu and Gray when he's not allowed outside during the day. But they also travel a good distance, coming out near towns where good hunting resides.

His parents share a look, a glare he recognizes well as Mama Lucy's 'you made the mess now clean it up' glare causing his father to shudder under him.

Gray sighs, reaching for the next handhold. "Because, Silver, Daddy Natsu and I got into a fight near the last town we hunted in and we have to go in a different direction while the humans cool off."

The blonde nods, shooting Silver a smile. "But there is an upside to it. We haven't gone hunting in the North for a few years so it'll be a good experience for all of us, don't you think?"

Silver is quiet, barely paying attention as his parents crest the ridge of the cove wall. He only speaks after they set off into the thick forest where the wind has died down to a small breeze and the snow no longer buffet's them.

"I like the idea of going somewhere we haven't been but it's also scary. What if there are monsters there that will hurt us?"

The adults share a look, a silent conversation passing between them the boy doesn't understand. After a minute Lucy's smile tightens almost to a grimace. "It'll be okay, Silver. Daddy Gray and I will be there every minute to make sure nothing goes wrong."

He's never understood what his parents say in their silent conversations. And he doesn't think he will, adults just make growing up too confusing. Do this, do that, stay out of this village, don't hunt that human, don't play with his food.

It surprises him then when he can hear his parents' footsteps. In the snow in their cove, it's inescapable even for his parents to go about as quietly as they normally do but to hear it in the forests, where there's no snow and they can easily see their small path?

He sits up, his eyes narrowing as he looks over his father's shoulder. Gray glances at him.

"What's the matter, Silver?"

Silver remains quiet, glaring into the forest. Tilting his nose he does as Daddy Natsu has taught him, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. When he finds nothing out of the ordinary he frowns, shaking his head. "It's nothing, Daddy Gray, I thought I heard something."

His father grins, shrugging his shoulders, and adjust his grips on the boy's legs. "Alright, if you say so. In the meantime, we have some distance to cover."

Hold on tight and don't let go. That's what his daddy means.

Wrapping his arms around his father's neck he grabs his right arm with his left hand, giving his father a nod to show he's ready. Lucy rocks forward, her weight setting into her lead foot and before the boy can follow she's nothing more than a blur of blonde through the trees. As his father follows her, his mind wanders, thinking of the shooting stars Mama Lucy had shown him that fall—flashes of yellow appearing in the dark for only a handful of seconds before they disappear again.

The wind in his face, howling in his ears as if answering the wolves in the distance. For as long as he can remember, he's always enjoyed the feeling.

Laughing when his daddies would do something amusing or quietly watching his Mama for ques when the situation calls for silence. Like now, he knows he needs to be quiet. He doesn't want to make Mama and Daddy Gray mad by alerting their prey to their whereabouts.

He closes his eyes, his hearing immediately picking up on his father's even breathing. A few seconds later he picks up on Mama's only half a mile up the trail. When the sound of multiple pounding paw-steps and panting reaches him, he grins, turning his head to whisper in his father's ear.

"The wolves are closing in."

Gray chuckles, glancing over his other shoulder. Having heard if not seeing the four-legged beasts yet. Not seeing them in view he returns his gaze to the trail, leaping over a large root sticking in the way.

"You've heard them, now try to find the alpha, Silver. You know Deliora likes to hide."

He giggles, opening his eyes to look over his own shoulder. It's not long after that he begins to pick up tell-tale signs of the long-legged black wolf rushing through the trees. When he finally does spot it, he's not surprised to find it's the black wolf's silver eyes he sees first.

The six spring old wolf in his opinion has always had the strangest eyes. A solid gray he's only seen from a piece of jewelry his Mama keeps put up for special occasions.

Not long after finding the wolf's eyes he finds the large silver scar traveling from its left leg up to its back. That's why he'd named it Deliora, because of the damage the human's trap had caused to his wolf. That and Daddy Gray had called it that when it had destroyed his favorite pair of boots.

Silver grins, clinging to his father with only one hand to wave at the wolf. The wolf grins in return, his gait evolving into a full sprint to keep up with the running adults. It howls, responses coming from the trees around them and Silver can't hold it back. He laughs, enjoying the sight of the misfits that make up the pack.

Each one he knows like the back of his hand because he's met them all—not without one of his parents being with him of course. When he hears a snarl he looks over to find the beautiful silver she-wolf snapping at the long-haired female in front of her.

Gray glances back when Silver returns both hands to grabbing tight and smiles as well. "Seilah and Kyoka not getting along again?"

He smiles, knowing the subversive omega to only be playing with the beta. Wolves from the same litter that rely on each other more then he's seen any other wolf in the pack. "No," he hums. "Kyoka's playing with her again and Seilah is giving a taste of her own medicine."

His father chuckles. "Well, that's good to know. The last time those two fought it wasn't a pretty picture."

Silver shudders, remembering the wolf blood that had covered the cove. "I don't want to ever see that again."

Gray squeezes his leg comfortingly. "I know, buddy. Our food is one thing, but seeing the blood of your friends spread before you? It's not a pretty sight."

A thud behind them draws his attention and when he looks back he giggles. His father frowns. "What was that?"

Silver can only shake his head, looking back at his father. "Tempester and Ezel just ran each other into a tree." Gray arches an eyebrow and Silver sighs, looking back as the two large wolves untangle themselves from the pile they'd landed in. "Daddy, how often are Tempy and Ezel trying to get under each other's paws?"

His father chuckles. "Alright, I'll give you that one."

As they run, they pass a line of trees scarred deeply with 'x' marks. The wolves slow to a stop at this barrier and Silver sighs, looking at the pack longingly.

"I wish their pack didn't have to go."

"Silver." His voice carries a warning Silver knows well and he looks ahead, his eyes narrowing at the light visible through the trees.

He frowns, glaring at the town coming into view. "It's not fair."

Ahead he can see Mama slowing to a stop, almost immediately leaping into one of the trees. His father begins to slow as well, his voice dropping with his speed.

"I know you don't, Silver, but the barrier is there for a reason. Both for the wolves and for us. If a human was to pass the barrier it would alert us and we'd be able to get you to safety before taking care of them."

Silver scowls and when Gray stops underneath a tree, giving the boy a hand to climb up, he crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at the church steeple lit in the distance.

"It's still not fair." He growls. Daddy Gray sighs, climbing into the tree after him. He sets a hand on his head, ruffling the medium length midnight blue hair.

"Somethings just aren't. Now hush, do you want to spook your dinner?"

When the boy falls into pouting Gray looks to Lucy, pointing his index finger up and moving it in a circle. The blonde shakes her head, pointing two fingers at her eyes, turning the gesture to Silver then copying Gray's.

Sensing the truth behind her signed statement, he looks at his boy. "I'm gonna scout the town, keep within eyesight of Mama Lucy. Okay?"

In light of his hunger flaring Silver forgets his reason for being upset for the moment and nods.

Gray leaps back down, holding up three fingers for Lucy to see then is gone. The duo waits in silence, one focused on the town, the other listening for anything that catches his fancy.

One such thing is the light the small town gives off. He's seen them before, even gotten close enough to one of the metal dishes it comes from to stare at it but that only resulted in him seeing bright yellow spots as if he'd stared at the sun again.

Looking at them from afar only makes him worry for his Daddy more. It illuminates the snow-covered streets, creeping a distance from the town itself and making it harder to find shadows to hide in.

From his perch, he can barely make out several shadows in between the buildings and shops.

He turns away from the town, looking instead to his Mama to ask about the lights when he hears a stick break. He tenses, angling his head in the direction of the sound. Mama Lucy does the same, her eyes narrowing.

They hear it at the same time, the low grumbling and few curse words that proceed a couple of men trudging up the path.

Lucy waves a hand, gaining his attention and points the branch beside her. A sign he recognizes as stay close. So he does.

He rises to his feet, walking along the branch with an easy stride belying inhuman balance. When he reaches the end he leaps, grabbing the closest branch of the tree Mama Lucy is in and quickly climbing toward her.

The noise startles the men, causing them to pauses in their steps. Their pause makes the vampires pause, both holding their breath until the humans continue on their path.

Lucy quietly snarls, turning to cuff Silver in the head and leans down, looking him in the eye.

"When I said get over here I didn't mean make enough noise to wake the dead. When we're hunting or even around humans we do not make a sound unless it is to take our prey. Am I understood?"

Silver diverts his eyes to the tree branch below them and nods. "Yes, Mama, I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Seeing he's truly sorry for the mistake the blonde sighs, setting a hand on Silver's shoulder. "Come on, let's follow these two and see what they're up to."

The blonde leaps down, crouching at impact than looks back to him. He frowns, looking over his shoulder at the town in hope of seeing his father.

"Silver," He flinches turning back to Lucy when he hears the hiss. "We have to go."

He swallows. "What about Daddy?"

Her expression softens. "Don't worry, he'll catch our scent and come looking. Now we really have to go if we're gonna keep an eye on them." She waves a hand, gesturing for him to get down.

The boy crouches, eyeing the fifty-foot fall and leaps, arms spread. Lucy grunts when he lands on her back, wrapping his legs around her waist and his arms around her neck. When she's sure he's secure she takes hold of his legs and starts running.

 _ **XxX**_

Laughter rounds the corner. Stuck between a lamp and a wall he turns to the rain gutter for escape. Three leaps have him standing on the roof of the shop in time for a group of three men to stumble in sight.

Leaning a hand on a bent knee he watches them pass by with narrowed eyes. The scent of alcohol floods off of them in waves, immediately taking them off his list of possible prey. With no further interest in the trio, he begins to turn away, already planning his path back to the woods.

"Hey, can you believe those idiots are going into the woods?"

He pauses, an eyebrow arched.

One of the men, a short blonde-haired man, laughs. "Idiots? Try dumbasses. Anyone in their right minds wouldn't pass the markers. Let alone try to hunt that wolf pack."

The third man looks about as thoughtful as a drunk man can be and shrugs.

"I don't know, Felix. I think they had the right idea. If we're gonna build farms out that way we need to clear the land. And in order to clear the land, we need to get those monstrosities out of the way."

The first man, Felix, stops, turning to his friends with a horrified look. "You're out of your mind, Rob. There's a reason we haven't entered those woods."

Rob smirks. "You mean the myths about those vamps living in the woods?" When his friend looks away he laughs, setting a hand on his shoulder for support. When he finally calms down he wipes a tear from his eye.

"Christ, you actually believe in that shit? You actually think there are monsters that live in the woods?"

He smirks, leaping off the roof to land in the shadow of the lamplight. He's heard enough to know that their time away from the town has made the townspeople lose all fear of their kind. Besides, just because he's already decided against these three for their meal doesn't mean he can't have a little fun.

The raven-haired man blinks, his crimson eyes returning to their normal color and steps into the ring of light.

It's Felix that notices him first, the drunkard's eyes going wide as he stumbles backward.

"Where the hell did you come from?" A few seconds later the other two turn, stumbling back as well when they see him.

Gray cordially smiles, bowing at the waist. "Forgive me for intruding but I just so happened to overhear your chat and have a question."

The third man shrugs. "I don't see what's so wrong about that. Ask away."

He arches an eyebrow. "Do you know for a fact that there are not monsters in those woods?"

Rob, who seems to be the doubter out of the bunch, shrugs.

"I dunno. Ain't ever seen one for myself." The blonde man beside him shudders, catching Gray's attention.

"And what about you good sir?"

The man shakes his head, rolling his shoulders in the process. "Uh-un, you're not catching me going into those woods. I heard enough stories growing up to know better. I ain't being drunk dry like an iced tea on a church Sunday because I was dumb enough to go in there."

Gray bites back a smirk, more than happy to see the fear still resides. He decides to ask one more question before scaring them out of their wits and returning to the trees.

"Why are there hunters going into the woods now? Wouldn't it be better to go during the day?"

The skeptic scowls. "It's that damned wolf pack. We're trying to clear some of the land for farming but every time a group of us go into the woods to start chopping the wolves chase us out either by attacking our equipment, our food supply, or us. A couple of our work buddies got fed up with it and are searching for the den so they can kill the lot of them while they're sleeping."

Annnd he's heard enough. Gods, just thinking about what his wild-child of a son would do if he ever heard this...He's actually afraid to think of it. His boy and Deliora have been friends ever since they'd rescued the poor pup from that trap and now to hear this…

He smiles again, this time allowing the light to catch his teeth. Gray bows. "Thank you, gentlemen, and I apologize for taking up your time." The vampire turns, stepping out of the light, then looks back. "Oh, and Skeptic? You'd live longer if you put more belief into those stories you claim as myths."

The way the light catches his teeth, how his dark blue eyes spin crimson in the night, it sends a shiver of horror down their spines. With an ominous chuckle, the vampire is gone, once more leaving the trio to an empty street.

 _ **XxX**_

Their breath puffs in clouds before them, only visible through the dim rays of moonlight leaking into the forest. The men stop, panting to catch their breath when the taller one looks up, reaching to smack his friend's arm to grab his attention.

When the shorter looks up he frowns. "What, Carl? I'm trying to make sure the ties on our bag is tight."

Carl coughs, pointing at the trees. "Dave, it's the _trees_."

The way he puts emphasis on the word has the man looking up, his eyes widening in shock when he sees the large 'x' scarred into each of the massive trunks.

He lets the bag go and slowly approaches the trees, exhaling in delight. "The barrier to the dark forest." He smirks, looking back at his friend. "Carl, do you know what this means? Two hours of hiking and we're already at the border. Just think, once we're past these trees we'll be able to hunt the pack and open so much acreage for the farms."

As Dave turns back to examining the tree Carl reaches for the bag. When he reaches down he sees movement in the corner of his eye and frowns, looking around the area in confusion.

Seeing nothing he shrugs, walking behind his friend.

Up in the tree Silver dangles upside down, Lucy's hand firmly wrapped around his leg while both his hands are covering his mouth. Lucy growls, hauling the younger vampire back on their perch.

Silver ducks his head until Lucy gently grab his chin, tilting it to look her in the eye. "That settles it. I'm talking to your fathers about tree climbing practice."

He whines in apology but knowing that once her mind is set there's no changing it he accepts his fate with little more than a blown raspberry. With his episode done he returns his attention to the humans, his brows furrowing in anger when they pass the barrier without the proper respect.

Mama stands up, rising no higher than a crouch and he quietly watches as she leaps from one large branch to the next, easily keeping up with the men.

Ten branches ahead she stops, turning back to him. He bites his lip, whining in nervousness and leaps, his nails digging into the bark of the next branch. His breathing coming in quick pants he hauls himself up, settling on the branch to gain his balance. Then he looks up at Mama and grins.

He can tell she's proud because she's smiling that wide smile she only ever has when she's proud of him. So he gets up, taking the next leap of faith.

By the time he hops on to Mama's branch, he's panting heavily, a small sweat having been worked up from the exertion. Lucy crouches, ruffling his hair with one hand.

"That was great, Sweetheart. Now, why don't you climb on my back so you can rest?" Gratefully he does as she says, his arms feeling like jelly as he clings to her.

Below them, the would-be hunters miss the blonde vampire's next leap, their attention on the paw prints in the light layer of snow.

The short one, Dave, frowns, his hand hovering above the edge of the track. "Carl these are fresh, maybe three hours old if that."

Carl shudders, the feeling of being watched sending ice like tendrils crawling down his spine. He turns to take in the area around them. As far as he can see it's empty but then he never looks up. Never takes into consideration the three pairs of crimson eyes casting silent judgment.

He doesn't know he's about to fall short in their judgment and pay the ultimate price.

In the treetops, Gray grins.

The raven-haired vampire has played this game before. He knows the ins and outs, the waiting periods, the scare tactics and the best time to strike. Add to that his wild-child and he knows the would-be hunters don't stand a chance.

He throws up a hand, signaling Lucy with a come-hither combined with a quiet hand gesture that has the blonde rolling her eyes. Before she leaps she throws him the universal bird.

He arches an eyebrow, grinning in a way that has something stirring within her even from that distance. Shaking her head she leaps, her feet easily landing on the wide branch.

Instead of sliding off like he expects his son to do, Silver merely reaches out an arm, grabbing onto Gray's shoulder and shifting from parent to parent.

Lucy smiles, ruffling Silver's hair. "Go. Gather the wolves and I'll meet you in the blood moon clearing with our guests."

With that the father and son team are gone, leaving Lucy to watch the hunting duo. A lazy smirk spreads across her features. One that has power pooling in her fingertips.

 _ **XxX**_

He can hear them. Their heartbeats, their panting breaths, the snow crunching under paw. He can always hear them. Now comes the fun part…

He gets to call them.

They're sitting in the clearing, the really beautiful one that looks like fresh blood in the spring but smells like those strawberries Daddy Natsu once brought back to the cabin.

Now it's covered in snow with a layer of ice slowly covering it. Their voices echo between the ice and open nighttime sky so he has to be quiet. The last time he met the wolves here he had to be really quiet or else he'd spook Lullabye, Kyoka's only pup.

The ice has finished spreading. It stops neatly at the edges of the clearing, no more, no less then they need and quietly he promises to one day be just as good with his magic.

Silver shakes his head, looking to his father with a quizzical expression. Gray nods. "Go ahead, Silver, call Deliora."

He grins, cupping his mouth with his hands and tilting his head back. "Aouroo. Ar-aouroo!"

It's not a howl like his friend can do but it's a howl his friend knows as his. A howl Deliora will come running to.

They sit in silence, collectively holding their breath for the return. It comes in the form of the wind through the trees, a song meant to call out the pack. He grins, turning to face the tree of two trunks.

That's where the silver eyes appear. Nestled in between the divided trunk he can see Deliora standing there, the wolf's ears forward on him. Silver draws himself up to his full four and a half foot height and steps toward the wolf.

"Deliora, you know there are hunters in the woods don't you?"

His parents have always been shocked by how his wolf friend can understand him but he's never paid attention to it. Always just happy to know that he has someone who can understand him even if Mama and his Daddies don't all the time. This situation is no different.

His friend nods solemnly, his ears lowering to his head. Silver continues on, slowly reaching up to lay a hand on Deliora's snout.

"I don't know if you know but they're here for you and your pack. Mama, Daddy Gray and I are gonna stop them but we need your help. Will you help us?" To answer his question, the wolf steps down, rubbing his head against Silver before crouching beside the vampire.

He knows what the wolf is allowing him. Any other day he'd accept and climb on his back, tonight though… Silver hesitates. He looks up, asking his father a silent question.

Gray swallows the lump in his throat and nods. "Go on, Silver, just remember to hold on."

Without a second thought, he steps over the wolf's back, small hands wrapping up in the thick black fur for a better hold. Under him, Deliora rises to his full height leaving Silver's feet to dangle several inches off the ground.

In a rogue thought Silver compares his friend to the massive brothers in the pack, thinking back to how both tower over him by a full head. Shifting muscles has the young vampire pushing the thought away, though, and bending his knees so his feet are closer to Deliora's sides.

Deliora leans his head back, his sides expanding with a deep breath and he howls. The long note hits the ice then bounces off, louder than it normally would be and going farther than it normally should.

 _ **XxX**_

"So they've found him." She mutters, smirking when she sees the men tense.

As one the men turn in the direction of the howl. She can hear their hearts beat quicker, whether in anticipation or fear she can't tell from her perch.

"Dave, a-are you sure we should do this?"

The tall one's head swivels, this time looking at the treetops and Lucy slinks back. Even if his eyesight is nowhere near as good as her own she knows it's better to hide then risk them catching a glimpse before the noose can tighten.

"Carl, we've already been over this." Peeking around the trunk she arches an eyebrow when the shorter man rounds on his friend. She can't see his face but from the tone of his words she can gather he's growing angry at his friend's hesitance. "You're gonna help me kill these wolves. Then we're gonna take their skins to town hall and claim those land deeds."

His friend shakes his head, stepping back. "I don't know anymore, Dave. Ever since we passed those damn trees I've been feeling like there's someone or something watching me."

Lucy has to muffle her snicker.

Dave sighs, turning away from his friend for only a second before he turns around and slaps him across the face. While Carl holds a hand to his cheek in shock, Dave slides the strap of a weapon Lucy only now notices further up his shoulder.

"You're a fucking idiot if you believe in those old wives tales. Now come on, let's go see if we can find that pack."

As they continue trudging toward where the howl originated and coincidentally her family, Lucy decides to follow them on the ground, slipping out of the tree as they disappear between two large trunks.

She follows them almost completely undetected. Avoiding patches of snow she knows will crunch under her feet, ducking low tree branches, and often slipping into their own footprints to keep track of them.

By the time the blonde can see the clearing through the trees she's more than ecstatic to leave the bumbling fools behind and find her family. However, as she slips off to track Gray's scent she misses the tall hunter glancing back in enough time to see her disappear.

He swallows, shaking his head.

"It's just your imagination. There are no monsters in the woods. It was just something Momma told you to scare you." Each sentence he mutters under his breath to calm himself. It doesn't work.

The fact that had he'd not turned his head at the right second he never would've seen the mysterious figure does strange things to his nerves. He tugs on the collar of his coat, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

Through the trees, he can see the blinding white of what looks to be a clearing. Frightfully he looks into the shadows. He can't see them but he can feel them. The nearly dozen pairs of eyes watching he and his partner. Again he shakes his head.

"It was just a trick of the light. It wasn't real." In his head, under his breath, he repeats those words as a mantra meant to keep the evil away.

When they step into the clearing he understands why his elders always warned against entering the woods. He eyes the black wolf warily. Never before has he seen an animal as big, nor as darkly colored.

The fur is almost pitch black, easily capable of blending in with the nighttime shadows. If it wasn't for the large silver scar racing from the beast's paw up well over three feet in height to disappear over its shoulder.

There and then he decides that if the dark fur isn't enough to make him pray to God it's the intelligent silver eyes watching him as warily as he, it. At least to him, the beast's eyes speak of an intelligence that not even his friend can comprehend.

Only after he tears his eyes away from the wolf's does he notice the small child sitting on its back. The boy only looks to about ten years old though going by the look in the one eye not covered by hair his physical appearance belies a wisdom beyond his years.

Almost immediately he steps backward, drawing a hand from his forehead, down his stomach than from one shoulder to the other in a gesture of protection. Somehow, he has a feeling that it won't work. That his God abandoned him when he crossed into a forest where mortal men are forbidden.

In front of him, his friend doesn't notice his break down.

The short one frowns. "Kid, are you okay?" Silver tilts his head in confusion and the hunter gestures to the wolf. "Stay still and I'll help you get away from the beast."

As the hunter positions the gun to rest in his hands, Silver looks past him, seeking advice from his father.

Standing between Ezel and Tempester, the twin massive wolves from earlier, Gray folds his hand, opening it and closing it like a mouth then cups his hands together.

The boy nods, looking back down to the hunter bumbling with his gun.

"Why do you need to take me away from Deliora?" He takes on an innocent look and the hunter pauses, nodding toward the wolf.

"That wolf is dangerous. It's attacked many people and will do the same to you if I don't take care of it."

Silver rolls his eyes. The gesture goes over the first hunter's head, the second hunter not so much.

Carl frowns, reaching forward to lay a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Dave, I _really_ think we should leave. The wolf obviously ain't hurting the kid." _And I think the kid is more dangerous for us._ He doesn't admit the last part aloud.

His friend turns, the gun aiming toward the ground instead of the wolf. "You know what, you can go Carl. I'll take out the pack myself. And it's obvious the kid is just scared."

Before he can stop him, Dave turns around, aims and pulls the trigger.

Carl pales, scrambling backward much more quickly when he sees the chunk of snow hovering in the air, the bullet smashed against it.

After that everything seems to happen at once.

There's growling, howling, and then he's pinned face down on the ice, his hands bound behind him while he can hear at least three different growls in his ear. He can't see his friend but he hopes that he's only in the same situation not—he doesn't want to finish the thought.

"Silver."

The hunter opens an eye, fear flooding his veins when he sees the same blonde-haired woman from earlier approaching. Now he can see she wears a scarlet red tank top with disconnected billowing sleeves near her forearms. Along the edges is lined with black, accenting the darker red. To his surprise, she wears black skinny pants, that is rounded off with dark flat shoes.

She doesn't acknowledge him, doesn't say a thing about him as she walks by.

"Yes, Mama?"

His arm twitches, earning a growl from the wolves over him.

"That was very well done. Pick your kill and I and Daddy Gray will finish off the other."

Someone grabs his arms, pulling him to his knees. Now he can see the woman standing in front of the kid still sitting on the wolf.

The grip on his arms tightens and he grunts in pain.

"Silver," It's a male's voice that comes from behind him. "make your choice quickly. We're burning moonlight hours and one of us will still have to hunt."

For some reason Carl will never understand, the kid looks at him, actually looks him in the eye. Silently, he pleads with the boy. He hopes beyond hope that with his fate in the hands of a ten-year-old vampire he'll live to see a new dawn.

Someone above must hear his pleas, however, because the boy looks up, behind him to the male. "Daddy, will you be mad if I ask to go hunt two more instead of killing this one?"

A noise of surprise comes from behind him and the grip on his arms loosens enough for blood to rush back to the limbs.

The blonde turns to the boy, her legs neatly folding into a crouch to allow her to look him in the eye. "Sweetheart, think very carefully about this. You're about to let a human who was just trying to kill Deliora and his pack walk free."

Silver—if Carl is right—frowns then taps the wolf's shoulder. The wolf crouches, allowing the boy to slip off. When the boy approaches him, he holds his breath, afraid that the smallest movement will change everything.

He comes to a stop in front of the hunter, his navy blue eyes swirling crimson and Carl is stuck, hypnotized by the eyes all the myths say to avoid. When Silver smiles, looking back at the blonde he's left shaking his head to get over the disorientation.

"He won't do anything. Especially if you make him promise, Mama."

Promise? What promise?

She chuckles quietly, ruffling Silver's hair as she moves to stand in front of the hunter.

The grip on his arms disappears, barely a second of thought passing before her hand is wrapped around his throat, lifting him into the air. He gargles, hands grasping at her wrist.

Her hand begins to glow golden yellow, a line of strange tattoos appearing on her bare arm as she glares at him.

"Hunter, hear me well for I will not repeat myself, swear as the stars witness that you will never step foot into our ancestral home, lest you and your kin be cursed to a life of misfortune so long as the light of the zodiac shines upon this earth."

He gargles, attempting to nod in her hand. When it becomes clear it's not working he tilts his head back, taking a shallow breath.

"I swear! I swear on my mother's grave I will never return!"

The glow brightens until it's blinding and then it's gone. When Lucy lets him go, all that's left is a miniature copy of one of the tattoos on her arm, three wavy lines burned into his neck.

His feet hit the ground and he manages to stay up, watching the woman in fear. But she does not pay him any more mind, instead, walking over to his friend still pinned on the ice by three wolves.

The third vampire, the one he has not seen yet finally moves into his sight. Though he too ignores him for the time being, instead, walking up to his son and the black wolf.

"Silver, see if Deliora can get a couple of his wolves to escort the hunter back to the barrier."

The boy nods. "Okay, Daddy." To the hunter's surprise, he walks up to the wolf and grins, cupping a hand over its ear to whisper as if sharing a secret.

In return the beast nods, adding a sharp huff. Carl jumps when two large wolves appear on either side of him. Their heads are level with his elbows, easily allowing them to eye him suspiciously.

Silver's father reappears in front of him, the hunter recognizing the bag in his hand. He holds it up, his crimson eyes narrowing.

"Ezel and Tempester will lead you back to the barrier. As soon as you pass the trees that curse will become active. Consider yourself lucky you get to see another day."

Carl nods, taking the bag without question. He wants to find out what will happen to his friend, but he knows not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He turns away following one of the massive wolves back into the trees. The second follows behind him, growling when he's too slow for their liking.

With the hunter gone Gray turns to his son, his eyes shining with pride. "Silver, how did you do that with the snow?"

He's seen snow magic before, both from others of their kind and from some particularly difficult spells he once did with his own mate but to see that kind of magic from his son is astounding.

Silver smiles. "It was easy Daddy, I just did what Mama told me and listened to it."

Gray arches an eyebrow, glancing at Lucy finishing off the other hunter and nods.

"Show me."

* * *

 **Folks, something I really need to point out, I'm not copying a style of Vampire. I'm pulling from multiple sources some y'all will recognize others you may not. This is the first time I'm writing Vamps so you have to give me a chance to get my own head wrapped around the idea of _what the fuck I am doing._ As with my other stories I only have an inkling of what I'll be writing with the chapter. How said chapter turns out is up to the gods of writing to decide. That's why I'm having so much trouble. Somehow I'm managed to bog myself with too many ideas, not enough time, and too much depression to even think straight sometimes. **

**Now it doesn't mean I'm going on hiatus. That would just make things ten times worse for me. So y'all just have to hold on. The chapters will come out, it's just taking a minute to do so.**

 ** _Kjacket,_ letting the kid practice hunting ain't much different then what parents do by letting their kids play with different items. The kid want to learn sewing? Cut up a rag, give them a needle and thread and show them how to stitch. Kid wanna cook? Let them help ya in the kitchen, you'd be surprised what they pick up. then of course there's the more dangerous choices. Hunting, fishing, riding ATV or Motocross. If kids want to try it, let them try, it really expands their world. Anyway, with the vampires I'm pulling from several different stereotypes and trying to make my own kind of vampire. It's not something I've done before so it's taking a minute to figure it out.**

 ** _Pixie Pixel,_ I'm so so happy to see you've enjoyed it. As for Silver's magic, I'm thinking of something more along the lines of a middle ground between Juvia's water magic and Gray's ice magic which of course results in snow. In other words be prepared for a lot more snow magic being thrown around. With the intermediate chapters where it shows Silver growing up, I'm trying to show the adults differing relationships. Last chapter was Natsu and Silver with NaLu, this one was GraLu and Lucy with Silver. I think you can guess pretty well which next chapter will be. After that we start really getting into the plotty points of the story and you'll get a harsh reminder of what happens when I tag a story Angst.**

 **That said I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter and I will see you next time.**

 **Grizzly out for the night.**


	4. Magnolia

**Sooo um. Long time no see. I'm just gonna say that this chaoter took a little while. As you can see it's quite a bit longer then usual but there is a reason. There is a lot of information that comes out this chaoter that pertains to the story itself. Originally I wasn't planning on having this much but once the idea bug hit it just ran away from me. Anyway go enjoy and I'll see y'all later.**

* * *

Chapter 4

Magnolia

Howling precedes whirling leaves. Panting breaths mingling in the mid-autumn breeze.

A blur slings out from between two massive tree trunks, laughter following. Midnight blue hair dips to cover navy blue eyes and Silver grins.

"Come on, Lycan, you're gonna have to do better than that!" Not too far behind he can see the dark silver, almost black fur of the wolf sprinting to keep up.

When the fifteen-year-old looks forward he yelps, leaping to avoid a tall root and takes to the trees. The wolf huffs from the ground. Silver rolls his eyes, leaping from branch to branch with practiced ease.

"Awe, come on, you're just being a sourpuss because I'm winning." Even as he shouts the words at the wolf he feels a twinge of nostalgia, glancing back to see not the wolf he is racing but the black pelt of the wolf he used to race many years before.

He shakes his head, focusing on the next leap. Only… he misjudges the distance. The teen screams uselessly waving his arms at his sides. Near the ground, his mind overrides the panic and he throws his hands in front of him, the index and middle fingers of his left hand spread in a V shape.

"Snow make: Bank!"

Before him, a massive snow bank appears and he crashes into it, an impression cutting deep into the bank. With his fall abruptly stopped he groans, rolling over to stare at the red and yellow leaves of the canopy high above.

Snow crunches from above before several snouts appear over the rim of the hole. When he hears huffing laughter Silver chuckles as well.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess I deserved that." At a small bark, he gets to his feet, his head barely being able to stick out of the hole he made. He looks up, pushing his hair out of his face to see the wolf he's been racing, Lycan, as well as others surrounding the hole.

To the teen, having known this particular pack for so long, he can read the amusement and excitement in their odd silver and blue eyes.

Silver rolls his eyes and turns to the lowest part of the hole. He waves his hands, gesturing to the wolves. "Eric, Trunks, I need to you to move so I can get out."

The taller one turns, kicking snow onto the teen. He sputters, wiping it off his face.

"Seriously Trunks?!"

More huffing laughter has him glaring at Lycan.

"You keep laughing, see if I bring you treats the next time I come out." The wolf's ears perk up at the statement and Silver shakes his head. "And Pops wonders why I come out to see you."

With the snow attack done Silver leaps out of the hole. His bare feet land on it, barely dipping into the drift. He moves over, away from the hole, and sits down with the wolves settling around him.

Lycan settles beside him, the wolf's snout easily finding its way into his lap. His hand comes down to settle between its ears and Silver pauses, glaring at his feet.

"It's not fair ya know? Ever since Mama mated with Dad and Pops they've just become wrapped up in each other. And now with Mama pregnant, it's worse."

He gets up, beginning to pace down the drift onto the forest floor then back up it, his hands flying wildly.

"Silver, you should know better than to use your magic inside." His voice drops, sounding similar to Gray's. "O-Or how about 'Sweetheart, we're not mad at you, now is a trying time.'"

The teen growls. Around him the temperature drops, snowflakes beginning to fall from his hands.

"Like okay, I understand this baby is coming, and yeah I know it'll be awesome to have a little sibling but what about me? I'm supposed to be doing my first solo hunt tonight and no one has even bothered to say anything about it! It's not fair, Lycan. Baby this, baby that! Why can't it be 'oh, Silver, I know you'll do so well on your hunt!'"

With how many times he's vented to the pack leader in the past few summers since the wolf took over he doesn't expect a reply.

"And you will."

Getting one is an entirely different matter.

Though he'd deny it later Silver's scream reaches into the alto range causing some of the surrounding wolves to scratch at their ears. He spins around, the speed causing him to fall back into the snow.

A hand on his heart he pants in shock at the pink-haired vampire sitting on a raised root. Then he scowls, glaring at his father figure.

"What are you doing here, Dad? I thought you and Pops were picking out hunting grounds for tonight?"

Natsu frowns, his crossed legs swinging under the root.

"We were until I heard you leave. You know for our kind; being that loud isn't supposed to be possible."

The teen shrugs. "Well, I was. What about it?"

Natsu sighs, sliding off the root to approach. "Silver, I know it's a lot to handle but you just have to be patient. This'll all blow over and you'll have a little brother or sister."

That has him falling back into the snow with a groan. "And you still don't get it."

Natsu walks over to him, sitting down beside him. He hears humming and Silver feels the older vampire's eyes on him.

"What is it I don't understand? That you're jealous because the baby is taking so much of our time? That you think we've forgotten such an important event as your first solo hunt is coming up tonight?" When the teen remains silent the pinkette sighs, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Little Bit, have either of us told you about your mother?"

He knows Lucy isn't his real mother, he's always known from the different scent that clings to his father just as he's always known the pinkette isn't his real father. Despite his own feelings he glances at Natsu in curiosity.

Natsu smiles sadly, gently squeezing his shoulder. "She was a lot like you, always full of energy and looking to get into trouble."

Silver huffs, looking away. "I don't get into trouble."

His father figure merely chuckles. "You keep telling yourself that. I can count more than twenty times in the last year you've gotten yourself into some kind of trouble." He reaches up to ruffle the teen's hair and Silver whines, ducking away from the hand.

"Tell me more about her." Natsu arches a brow. "My mother, can you tell me more about her?"

The pinkette shrugs. "I don't know. We spent nearly a millennia as a group or in contact. It would take a week to cover it all."

Silver perks up, his eyes holding a hopeful light. "How did she and Pops get together?"

Tilting his head to the side, Natsu looks at the tree trunk behind the teen in thought. While he waits, Silver watches his eyes glaze over as if getting lost in the memory.

His own mind begins to wander, blurry memories that hold no detail coming forward to capture his attention. Distantly he remembers the smell of water lilies and a soft hum but the image that comes with it is distorted, time and age blurring it the more he attempts to focus.

"Gray and I have known each other since we were yearlings." Natsu's voice snaps him out of his thoughts. He looks up to find the pinkette grinning playfully. "We weren't born vampires like you were, we were turned when we were your age and met a year after that. Because our magics were polar opposites we fought all the time. That's calmed down over the centuries but we still get into brawls every now and then."

Silver sweat drops thinking about the fight his fathers had had only a week before. The pinkette pays him no mind though, his focus long in the past.

"About five centuries later we met your mother in a pub. She was surrounded by several drunk men who wanted to 'borrow' her time." His nose wrinkles in disgust. "It was a quick meal and even quicker fight but all three of us swore off attacking drunk men after that. That was a huge mistake I plan on not repeating."

He shudders and Silver sniggers. He'd always wondered why his parents advised against preying on drunk humans but to actually hear the reason is another thing entirely.

If what Mama had told him is true, drinking from a drunk human is similar to consuming the alcohol itself only tenfold. Due to how their own body breaks down their food so they're required to only hunt once a month the effects of the alcohol in the blood can cause a severe hangover that can last for upwards of a week if not longer.

His father chuckles, returning his attention back to the present. "It wasn't fun but anyway after all was said and done we went our separate ways. I, myself, didn't see more of your mother for another fifty years. It was during that time that she started to stalk your father."

He tilts his head, smiling at the memory.

"Because of our enhanced senses we always know what is around us be it by sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. It used to drive your father crazy when your mother stalked him because he knew someone was there he just could never find her."

Silver sniggers at the thought when a question occurs to him. "When did Pops finally figure out it was her?"

The wolves are gone, he only now notices. When they left he doesn't know but it doesn't matter. He knows he'll see them again. Afterall he still has to pay Lycan back for his tricks.

"If I remember correctly the stalking went on for about a century." Natsu hums, one hand coming up to rest on the scarf around his neck. "After that, they got to talking and I wanna say twenty-five years later they finally paired up."

Silver's in awe. Finally hearing the story he hadn't known he wanted to hear is fascinating. He's enchanted, a vision of his father with the outline of a woman that could be his mother forming in his mind's eye.

"What happened then?"

His father's expression changes, taking on a sadden look. "After your father and mother paired up I took off as a loner wandering the world. You have to understand that with our long lives whereas a human is happy with traveling to a different country once or twice we can easily travel every country in the world hundreds of times and still feel the need to travel."

As he absorbs this another thought wriggles into his mind, one he can't quite squash down. Along with it comes an unsettling feeling and he swallows, looking at Natsu with wide earnest eyes.

"Dad," He doesn't know how to ask it, let alone how to even phrase such a question. Still, his father figure smiles in sympathy, out of all three of his parents this one, in particular, can understand the difficulty of asking some questions. So he asks it for him.

"Why haven't we traveled since we had you?" When Silver nods he grins. "There's a little secret about our kind that no human _anywhere_ knows. Do you wanna know what it is?" He leans closer, his voice dropping to a whisper as if passing along an actual secret. "When our kind meets their mate the urge to travel goes away."

Hearing such an anticlimactic answer, Silver groans, flopping onto his back. "Daaaaad."

Natsu laughs at his adopted son's expression, the last of the tension in the air disappearing with the sound.

When his laughing subsides he looks down at the teen with a fond expression. His jade eyes showing such a wealth of love and pride Silver is once more reminded why he gladly calls this man a father.

Silver reaches down to grab some of the melting snow, his cold touch easily refreezing the crystals.

"So why does our kind lose the urge to travel?" He refuses to say the word 'mates'. Something in his gut tells him his head will explode if he even tries. The idea of mates already is incomprehensible. He's only a hundred and fifty springs old!

In answer his father shrugs. "There's not an exact answer for it. When one of our kind marks their mate, the urge to travel begins to die down. It becomes not so much of a bell ringing in our heads as it is a dull echo. And if the pair bears a child then the urge becomes almost completely muted."

Curious he tilts his head, the gesture angling his ear better toward the pinkette. "And why is that?"

"Why do you think they settle down?"

He _hates_ these kinds of questions. Questions about fighting or magic, he can answer easily but when it comes to the subject of behavior and pathology it's like trying to find a corner in a circle. Utterly impossible.

Still, he puts his mind to the question with the same amount of effort he would if his father had asked him about hunting. Oddly, this time it doesn't take breaking a few dozen tree branches to find the answer.

Grimacing he glances up. "Because a babe is too vulnerable to travel long distances?"

Natsu's lips quirk in a half-smile. "Close. Babes age the same way adults do. Every ten human years for one of ours. What that means is that compared to human babes, ours develop much slower." He holds up a hand, stalling Silver's next question. "The slower development is for a reason. The magic we wield?" The teen nods. "Without being able to age more slowly our bodies wouldn't be able to handle the amount of energy it takes to wield the magic. That's why born Vampires are stronger than those who are changed to our kind."

It surprises him to hear his father use the word the humans use for their kind until he remembers that both of his fathers weren't born like he was. That they had to deal with a change he's heard rumors kill most humans is yet another piece of the puzzle he needs to wrap his mind around.

Silver pulls his mind away from his musing. A gut feeling warning him to pay particular attention to this lesson.

"Why is that?"

The pinkette grimaces, looking as if he's swallowed a very bitter berry. "A babe grows so slowly because their bodies need the time to be able to handle the magic. When a human is changed, a feeble body already developed to be able to only survive for a century—if that—is required to be able to take in a massive amount of magical energy all in the span of a few hours. There are downsides to this, many that come from our own kind instead of the humans."

Seeing Silver's questioning expression he sighs. "For those of our kind who are Changed instead of Born they try to hide that fact because there are some raised from birth to believe they are superior to the Changed and that the Changed are only to be enslaved and commanded at will. One of their justifications comes from the difference in the magic in our veins."

Natsu lights a fingertip on fire, turning it down to draw in the snow around them as he continues.

"Changed, like your father and I, struggle to wield our magic for very long. Yes, we can do extremely powerful spells or rather weak ones but we can't do both at the same time. Whereas I'd be able to take down a handful of trees around us in a matter of a minute with one strong spell I'd be able to do the same with many weaker spells that would take much longer."

Silver nods. Mama Lucy had explained something of the like before in her lessons. Just how far that difference goes, though, he's still learning.

"Born, like yourself and Lucy, on the other hand, are able to wield many spells of considerable strength at one time." Natsu glances up, ensuring he's still paying attention. "Really, in the end, a magic fight comes down to a Vampire's stamina. Their stamina depends on if they're Born or Changed and yadda yadda yadda you get the point."

Silver snorts to hide a laugh and Natsu chuckles, shaking his head in amusement. When he falls quiet, he looks down to try and make out what his father had been drawing in the snow. Or rather writing. From he sits he can vaguely make out an old script of language he doesn't recognize. He scoots forward, frowning as he attempts to make it out.

"What does that say?"

"Huh?" He gestures to the writing at Natsu's grunt.

"The writing. What does it say?"

Natsu looks down, only now seeming to realize what he has written. He sighs, looking at the teen. "Duìyú wǒmen suǒyǒu de rén lái shuō dōu shì yīyàng de."

Seeing Silver's confusion he chuckles. "It's an old saying your father and I have kept from the beginning. It means 'To all, we are one. To one, we are all.' Once we understood how hard it would be for a newly Changed in a world of old we made a promise that we would always have each other's backs."

"To all, we are one. To one, we are all." As he repeats the phrase his father's earlier story comes to mind. A nagging thought quickly digging in with it. "Hey Dad, if you and Pops were supposed to look after each other why did you leave after he got together with my mother?"

Natsu grimaces, reaching out to wipe the words away.

"We didn't get into a fight or anything like you're probably thinking. If anything it just kind of happened. I knew Gray was happy and with your mother being a Born I knew they wouldn't have any problems with others of our kind. One day I just told him I was leaving, told him I was happy to see he was happy and the next day I left." He shrugs. "Like I said it just kinda happened. There was no real plan, no real argument. After I left them, I sorta expected that the next time I saw them they'd have a babe and already be settled down in one location while they raised him."

That catches his attention. He perks up, looking at his father in excitement. "The next time you met them was when I was born?"

To his dismay, his father snorts. "No, Little-bit, you weren't even thought of for about another millennium."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" He sweat drops.

Natsu holds his hands in front of him in a placative gesture. "Easy, easy. Remember I told you this story would take awhile and it's not even the full story. I could've also told you about any hundred incidents where your father and I were run out of towns." He pauses, a thoughtful look on his face. "Well, there was that one time…"

"What was it? Tell me! Please, please, please?!" Setting a hand on his shoulder to push him back, his father laughs.

"Alright, I'll tell you. Just calm down for a minute." Eagerly Silver nods, midnight blue hair falling to cover an eye. Natsu looks to the tree canopy, his focus so far inward he doesn't register the colors of the changing leaves. "Let me see…It was," He snaps his fingers grinning. "Oh, yeah, it was about four or five centuries after I left your father and mother. During that time I had traveled Midi for about half a century and met a gorgeous blonde Born. About a century and a half after we decided to start traveling together we ended up out east in Minstrel. The town we walked into was beautiful."

He leans forward, grinning. "Silver, I shit you not. This was one of the most beautiful towns I had ever seen. The rock formations that kept the town safe from attack would be hit by the rays of the setting sun and it looked like the world was just set aflame." He waves his hand in an arc, a wave of flame following it. Silver watches with avid interest, his curiosity and wanderlust thriving on the story. "The way the light danced across the stone, it made it feel like you could taste the magic in the atmosphere. Every light, every splash of color, it looked like one of the phantoms of Howler's Moon had come from the stone to play at sunset."

Dark blue eyes go wide in excitement. He's seen the phantoms of the Howler's Moon or 'Halloween' as the humans call it. A night when all wolves announce their presence by howling to the moon to wake the dead. It's the one night of the year when the souls get to rise and dance the night away. Almost a decade before, he'd even gotten to meet some of the souls up close, a lovely if odd couple who went by Mavis and Zeref. He shakes his head from thinking about trying to find the odd couple when his father's voice drops to a whisper, drawing his attention back to here and now.

"Of course," He looks over his shoulder as if on guard for something. What, Silver doesn't know. "The humans didn't know it but magic was in the air." He smiles. "It was a town of both magic and beauty, a really rare combination for the era. And something even our kind doesn't get to find all too often anymore."

"How did you run into Pops?" While he wants to hear more about the town his curiosity is starting to get the better of him. He wants to know more about his parents.

Natsu playfully glares, reaching out to ruffle his hair. "I'm getting there, Little-bit." Silver whines, dipping away from the calloused hand and his father grins. "See, the town we were at was located on the border with Desierto. It was sometimes a month or more of traveling the deserted lands before we'd come across a town to feed at so when we did, we'd take our fill and leave the next night. That was our plan at least. When we actually got into the town and started hunting it didn't quite turn out that way. At the time we didn't know another pair of our kind had come to the town with the same intent. Not until we ran into them tracking our prey. Thaaaat wasn't exactly our cleanest or easiest hunt. Especially when the women decided to let your father and I go after the same guy because we hadn't realized we knew each other because we were still trying to grab the same prey."

He rubs the back of his head sheepishly while Silver is forced to bite back a laugh. If he's gonna find out the rest of this story before sundown then he'll need to focus. His father frowns.

"We got our prey but with it only being one human and all the time we had spent hunting him we ended up having to stay a few more nights to make sure all four of us ate. On the last night was when things turned south. During the time we'd been in the town your father had gradually started flirting with my blonde. Eventually, it came to a head when he asked her to leave me and travel with him and your mother."

Silver's eyes go wide and his jaw drops in shock. "B-B-But how is that even possible?!" He sputters, outraged even at the thought his father could do something so cruel.

The pinkette shrugs. "It's how our kind was during the era. There was a surge in Hunters during the time and we all felt the pain as our numbers dropped. To fight this, males would sometimes pick up more than one female. If a male had a mate and found another female he could ask her to join their group as long as his mate was willing. Your father was just doing what he felt was right."

"Please tell me you stopped him?" He can't believe this. He'd been thinking his father was an ass as of late but to hear about this, it just adds a new definition to the word.

Natsu rolls his eyes. "Of course I did. Your father and I may be battle brothers but even I have my limits on what he tries to take from me. That, of course, ended up with half the town being burned to the ground, the other half frozen in ice, and nearly three score of angry humans running us, your mother, and my blonde out of town."

Right, they were talking about his fathers being run out of towns. He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands.

"So what happened then?"

Natsu hums. "Your father and I held a pretty bad grudge against each other for about another four or five centuries. In that time I hadn't known it but Lucy and your mother kept in touch, often by trading letters. About five and a half centuries after our fight in Minstral, Lucy shows me this letter from your mother that has a specific location written down."

Instead of being happy, his father's expression begins to dip almost too depressed. A bad feeling rumbles in the teen's gut. Suddenly he doesn't want to hear the end of this story.

"Before then their letters had never had any set locations because there was no set location for either of us to stay at. So imagine our surprise when the letter we receive has a coordinate, star course, and town name? Despite the bad blood, I couldn't _not_ be happy to hear he had a little one on the way." He shakes his head, pink locks falling into his eyes. "Lucy and I up and left the next day. We were halfway across the world playing hide and seek with a group of Hunters in Pergrande at the time and it ended up taking us about a year to lose them and make our way to Ca-elum where they were living." His lips lift in a tormented smile. "When we finally found them we got to meet a little three moon old babe that had his mother's eyes and little itty bitty tufts of his father's hair."

He should be embarrassed. He's supposed to be embarrassed. He _has_ to be embarrassed… He's not… Not when it looks like his father is about to cry and the feeling in his gut makes him want to go seek out Mama Lucy to hide behind her skirts like a child.

Clearing his throat, his father looks away but he sees the glassy eyes, the tears welling.

"We decided to stay in Ca-elum after that. There were rumors of Hunters spreading through the harbors and all four of us knew a couple with an infant babe is as vulnerable as they come. Especially with the Hunters grouping into squads ranging from two to five. Even two of our kind without a babe would have trouble fending off that many." The pinkette closes his eyes, and Silver sees a stray tear fall. "A summer after we made our decision it happened."

What 'it' is. He has a pretty good idea and he doesn't like 'it' at all.

"It was a full moon, the best time for hunting, so we left. Your father stayed at the cabin to watch you while your mother and we went hunting. With three of us and rising alarms we decided to split up, each going in opposite directions to avoid notice." Natsu shakes his head. "We didn't know. We were over a hundred miles away and had no clue what was happening. Not until we got back and saw the smoke from the burning cabin. By then they had killed your mother and your father was so grief stricken he didn't have a clear mind to try and get you out of there. Even if he could've, the Hunters he was facing would've killed you both before he had a chance to disappear."

A lump in his throat makes it impossible to speak let alone breathe. To think he would've known his real mother growing up if those _Hunters_ hadn't ripped it all away. Knowing the story now, a well of gratitude and love for his parents blooms in his heart. Still, there's one more thing he needs to know.

"Hey, Dad?" Natsu looks up, grief clear in his jade eyes. While he doesn't want to ask, he knows he has to. "What happened afterward? How did we end up here?"

His father seems to have had enough of sitting done for he gets up, leaping off the melting snow bank to land lightly on the root he had been sitting on earlier. He turns back, tilting his head to the side.

"I'll tell you on the way back. It's almost sundown and you know how your father is if we're late for a hunt."

Remembering what happens tonight Silver gets up as well, jumping to land beside his father. Natsu grins and they take off, leaping through the trees like monkeys. After pulling a particularly tricky move through a smaller double trunked tree he begins to speak again.

"With the three of us there, we had enough hands to protect you as well as fight off the Hunters. Mama Lucy, as you know, has a more defensive type of magic so she hid among the trees while your father and I took out the trash."

He doesn't care what Mama Lucy says, swinging through the trees is just as much fun as running. Even more so when he swings up high enough to front flip before latching onto a tree branch and swinging above his father.

"After the fire was put out we knew we couldn't stay in Ca-elum anymore. Our home had burned down, our settlement had been discovered and it wouldn't be too long before more Hunters came after us. Particularly your father and I."

Silver pauses in a crouch atop a slim branch no thicker than his head and glances down at his father. "Do I wanna even ask?"

Natsu chuckles, swinging past him. "Remember what I said about your father and I fighting? When a fire and ice type get together and begin to _travel_ together it's bound to gain some notice. The Hunters, in particular, don't like it when we manage to get along long enough to Unison Raid. That really throws a wrench in their gears."

Unison Raid? He's heard the term before.

"Ain't a Unison Raid when two of our kind can combine their magic to make a really, really, really strong spell?" His father nods, leaping up onto a branch that runs parallel with his own.

"Aye. It's rarely done though as the magics have to be similar and you have to be able to trust your partner with your very life. To this day I still don't know how your father and I have been able to do it."

Now he's curious.

"What did you and Pops destroy?"

His father pauses mid-sprint, turning to squat on the branch and Silver has to snatch a branch to keep from falling out of the tree. When he comes around to stand on the branch in front of the pinkette, his father grins.

"Even heard of the Great Wall of Sin?" Racking his brain he comes up with nothing and shakes his head. "Of course ya wouldn't. The wall was a massive line of bricks that stretched all the way across the border between Sin and Pergrande. We got in a fight with a giantess a little over a millennium ago who decided we needed to pay a ridiculous amount of gold to get into Pergrande and brought down it down just to spite her."

His jaw drops in amazement and Natsu cackles, leaning forward to fall off the branch. After a minute he shakes his head and falls after him. As he grabs a vine to flip onto a lower branch he looks up, finding his father running almost directly above him.

"Hey, Dad! If Changed are weaker then Born how did you and Pops have the strength to tear something like that down? Wouldn't it have killed you?"

"Not quite, Little Bit." His father is grinning. Even though he can't see it, he can hear it in his voice. "What I said earlier is true, a Born is much stronger than a Changed, but if a Changed trains hard he can make up for his shortcomings. That is what your father and I did. After we partnered up, we would train day in and day out while we traveled. Add our training in with the fact that the Unison Raid takes our power and multiplies it tenfold and it's pretty easy to see how it's possible. As for the exhaustion part, let's just say that after we escaped an angry Giantess we ended up sleeping in an abandoned cave for a solid moon."

They fall quiet after that, though laughter often breaks the silence as they perform tricks leaping through the branches. Most of the tricks Silver does are automatic. He pays no attention to them as his mind is turned inward, carefully sorting through everything he has learned.

Unfortunately so focused is he, he doesn't see the branch that breaks under his father's weight. The branch strikes him, knocking him off his own branch with a yelp. As he falls he looks around, reaching for the nearest branch to at least slow his descent. The branch he grabs hold off isn't very big—no thicker than his arm—only giving him enough time to turn over before it too breaks under his strength.

Seeing the next group of branches fast approaching he groans. "This is gonna hurt!" Several thinner branches whip across his chest and arms causing him on instinct to curl into himself.

What seems an eternity though is really only a few seconds later his hastened descent is brought to a full height by something grabbing his belt. Silver looks over his shoulder expecting to find the leather caught on a branch. A sigh of relief escapes him when he sees his father holding onto him with one hand, the other carving deep furrows into a thicker branch barely outside Silver's own reach.

He grins sheepishly. "Thanks, Dad."

Natsu grunts in response, looking at him then up to the branch. His father must not agree with something for he hears him growl a curse under his breath. After a minute he looks back at the teen. "Alright, Silver. This is gonna be a bit tricky and we're only gonna have one chance at this. Do you remember the Monkey Crawl?"

The teen grimaces. Of course, he remembers it. After they stopped carrying him the move was the only way he was able to keep up with his parents in the trees for the longest time. He absolutely _hates_ it.

His father chuckles. "Well get ready 'cuz you're about to do it again."

No other explanation. No countdown. His father just throws him by his belt into the air. He flips head over heels before straightening out and latching hands and feet to a branch several feet above his father. He growls, his nails digging into the bark as he crawls back on the branch. Back on top, he crouches low to regain his bearings and wait in case his father needs help as well.

Natsu, though, apparently doesn't need help for he lights the tips of the fingers on his free hand on fire, pushing them into the wood like a hot knife through butter. With both hands securely in the wood, he forces his feet under him then pushes off. A strong leap has him flying above Silver's branch before landing lightly beside his son.

They sit there, quietly regaining their balance after the stunt when he glares at the pinkette.

"I _hate_ doing the Monkey Crawl." Natsu chuckles, shaking his head.

"Hate it all you want, Little-Bit, but that move saved your life."

Silver takes on a thoughtful look. "Well, if you wanna get technical, Dad, you saved my life. After all, you're the one who caught me."

The pinkette rises to his feet, looking out over through the orange and yellow leaves. He smiles softly and rests a hand on Silver's hair.

"Silver, that's my job. That's why Lucy, Gray, and I are here—to raise you and protect you until you're old enough to strike out into the world on your own. That's what a parent does for their child." Silver looks up, once more seeing a look of pride and love so wide it feels as if the dark forest could disappear into it multiple times over. "It's what a father does for their son."

Silver shakes his father's hand off his head and rises to his feet. An overwhelming ache takes him and he lurches forward, wrapping his arms around the pinkette. He ducks his head to Natsu's chest, more than grateful for the familiarity.

"Thanks, Dad," Natsu envelopes him in his arms, tightly hugging the teen. "for everything."

The pinkette swallows past the lump in his throat. "Always," He pauses, thinking, then adds barely above a murmur. "son."

Silver's the first to pull away, his pale cheeks a light pink out of embarrassment. He clears his throat, turning away from his father.

"I guess we should be heading back?"

Natsu grins, his arms dropping to his sides. Silver hopes he won't mention the slip-up. It's hard enough to keep an icy mask up when one of his fathers is so warm-hearted and welcoming. That being said, he's also seen his fire-wielding father be as cold as his ice-wielding father when the occasion calls for it. The look being strong and harsh enough to have humans running in terror.

His father nods, already leaping for the next branch and he follows along, his thoughts once more delving into more abstract subjects. This time, while his father plays around he keeps to simple leaps and bounds, his mind turning in too many circles to multitask.

Until his father appears hanging upside down in front of him. He skids to a stop on front of him, only now noticing the pinkette frowning in worry.

"Alright, Little-Bit, what's got you by your teeth this time?" A metaphor for being distracted; his fathers came up with it when he happened to be so distracted running with the wolves one summer he ran into a low hanging tree branch and got his teeth stuck in the sappy wood.

 _They'll never let me live down the memory, will they?_ He grimaces, shaking his head. "It's nothing, Dad, I was just thinking about what you told me earlier."

Natsu crosses his arms over his chest, arching an eyebrow. "Go on, we got time before your father starts freezing things."

"I swear, Dad, it's nothing." He rolls his eyes with a groan.

"Uh huh and I'm a flyin' purple people eater."

He sighs, knowing his father won't drop the matter any time soon. Sitting down on the branch he looks up. "Your story. I was thinking about the end of it when you left Ca-Cael—"

"Ca-elum?"

He nods. "That. Why did you travel all the way to Fiore? Wouldn't there have been those groups of our kind you could go too?"

Natsu's expression hardens. The teen doesn't know why, but something about what he said seems to have ticked his father off. When his father slides off the branch to sit in front of him he moves backward, more than weary of how unpredictable his fire magic is when angered.

"What you're talking about," Natsu begins coldly. "is a coven. There were covens in Ca-elum, yes, but a coven is somewhere you do not wanna go. If you had to choose between being killed by Hunters or joining a coven go with the Hunters."

Silver moves further backward. He's seen his fathers mad, he's seen them angry, frustrated, temperamental. He's seen just about every emotion he can think of from his parents but looking at his father now, he can't remember a time where he's _ever_ seen such cold and calculating rage. And though he doesn't want to test his rage, Silver knows that if he wants an answer he needs to ask.

"Why are covens so bad?"

The pinkette growls, red and orange wisps beginning to flicker up and down his arms.

"In a coven, there's one leader, the oldest and wisest in the group that everyone else grants their loyalty and respect. There is a hierarchy in which everyone who follows the leader—the Elder—must follow. The older a Vampire the higher in the ranks they are." Natsu stops, closing his eyes and forcing himself to take a deep breath. When he exhales there's a wisp of flame to it. "Again, the difference of Born to Changed comes in play. Newly Changed are thrown to the bottom of the pecking order—even below babes—and are often spit on and left to fend for themselves. Changed, no matter how old they are, are looked at as second-rate beings."

Natsu looks away, his hands falling to his sides to dig into the bark. "Three years after your father and I Changed we sought out a Coven. We thought we'd be able to find protection there while we trained, a safety measure if you will. We granted our loyalty to the Elder, bent our pride to listen to him, and he turned it against us." He barks out a harsh laugh. "You wonder why your father and I are so strong? I'll tell you why. The first decade of our existence as Vampires was spent fighting for our very survival."

When Natsu turns back to him, Silver's terrified of the crazed gleam in the jade eyes. One scarred over and over again by abuse and torture he himself will never know.

"The Elder felt that in order for a Changed to be in his coven, they needed to be strong, stupidly powerful to even compare to the Born he surrounded himself with. Every night he would command two Changed to fight against each other. Whoever won would live to see another night, the loser was killed while the winner watched as a reminder of the consequences."

He smells wood burning. He's scared, he wants to run before his father burns down the forest. He can't.

"Being so young, your father and I were pitted against countless Vampires. All Changed who some, even after centuries, still clung to their humanity and didn't want to kill someone who had yet to live. Each one, we brought to his knees." The pinkette only now seems to notice the burning wood. Lifting his hands he shakes off the smoke and sets them on his lap. Then he shudders, his eyes falling to his hands.

"'To all, we are one. To one, we are all.' That's where that saying came from. We vowed to always protect each other, to help each other escape that hell hole and live to wander the world. Then came the night there were none younger then Gray and I. The Elder had called us to the ring, we couldn't say no. When we saw we had to fight each other we knew it was time to escape."

He grins darkly, one hand coming up to rub the cross-shaped scar in his abdomen. Silver has always wondered where he got it and when he asked before he always got a simple 'We got in a fight and went too far.' Now he knows, it was more than just a fight gone too far.

"He commanded us to fight and we fought, but not each other. No, the moment we received the order to fight we became battle brothers. We turned on the Elder and his crowd of Born. Together we fought off each of them, inflicting blows we had watched them inflict on other Changed, on us."

He's glad to see his father's rage calming down once more, telling the story opening a way for him to vent. As if coming out from underwater his father shakes his head, looking at him again, his grin falling to a neutral if sad expression.

"After that night, we officially became Rogues to our kind. When we first met your mother and Lucy, they both told us that the scent of killing the Elder clung to us, marking us as Rogues not to be dealt with in anyway." And he shrugs. "To us, it never really mattered. We have our scars from time in a coven, scars that promise we will never go back to one if we can help it. Not if every coven looks down upon Changed like that."

Once again he gets to his feet, leaping to the branch he had originally been running on. Silver copies him, a gut feeling telling to him to stay quiet, that there's more his father has to say.

A moment later his instinct is right on, the older vampire turning back to him. "You asked why we came to Fiore. Why leave your birth land when it has everything we needed. There were three reasons why we did. The leading factor was, of course, the Hunters, the second was we wanted to avoid the covens, and the third was this," He waves to the trees around them. Silver has never really paid attention—not specifically—to the forest he's grown up in. Sure, he's noticed the wolf packs or how the seasons are different within the markers compared to outside them but never has he paid attention to the forest itself.

Not the way the shadows refuse to offer up their secrets, nor how the tree branches seem to reach for them as if either to drop them or support them. Now that he thinks about it, their movements have always been almost completely silent within the trees. Neither the deer or the birds in the trees would know they were there until they showed themselves.

Natsu grins, looking down at the teen. "A hundred years before I traveled east to Midi I stayed in this very forest. I met an elderly Vampire who had been around when the forest was young and he told me its secrets. About how the barrier carved into the trees protects all magical creatures in its depths from being tracked from beyond the border. How the wolf packs, like the pack you're so friendly with, are so large to protect the souls who call this place home. Why their howl calls upon the magic in the moon to wake the spirits."

A memory of a snow and ice covered clearing comes to his mind. A hunter cursed, the other killed to protect the pack and suddenly everything fits. Why he's always been able to understand the pack even after Deliora died, why the souls are so happy during Howler's moon, and why he's always felt a deep respect for the barrier marked into the millennia-old trees.

He looks up, ready to ask his father another question when he realizes the older vampire is gone, racing through the trees once more. Silver openly laughs, launching after him.

A few trees later as he's leaping into a backflip he passes the pinkette by. When he lands on the branch he looks back with a grin.

"Come on, old man! Surely you can beat a young buck like me in a race."

Natsu grins, leaping up to the same branch as his son. "Old man, eh? This old man can still beat you in a race back to town."

They spit in a hand, turn to each other and shake hands. "Deal."

Than Silver is gone, leaping higher into the tree. He breaks through the canopy, his eyes rapidly adjusting to the setting sun. In the distance, he can barely make out the tip of a spire. The spire that marks his target.

Glancing through a gap in the treetops he can just see his father bouncing from trunk to tree trunk, a maneuver he has yet to teach the teen. He smirks.

"You wanna cheat? Two can play that game." He closes his eyes, recalling his magic lessons and balls one hand into a fist. Setting his other hand flat first on the top of the fist then the bottom he chants, "Ice make: Path!"

When he opens his eyes he's surprised to find a somewhat sturdy path of ice three feet wide stretching across several tree tops. However, when he places a foot on the path he grimaces.

When his father had taught him the art of ice magic he hadn't exactly been paying attention, not after he learned his easier ability of snow magic. Now, skating across a wobbly and crumbling path he resolves to ask when they return home about getting an extra lesson in the subject…

Still, the path he creates manages to give him a large enough head start that when it comes to an abrupt edge he's able to dive headfirst back into the canopy. Through the top layer of mid-autumn leaves, he snags a branch and using his velocity swings up, flying over a branch of another tree to land on a sturdy branch two trees from where he fell through the canopy.

He grins, leaping for the next tree when he hears a laugh a few trees back. He laughs as well, looking back to see his father still trunk bouncing from tree to tree. Then he runs along the branch he's on, bouncing on the tip like a diving board and flipping end over end onto a lower branch. His calloused feet, toughened from the repeated experience are the only thing that stops him from sliding into a beehive.

"Show off!"

Running along the branch Silver shoots up the trunk, glancing over his shoulder. "Maybe if you finally showed me how to bounce I wouldn't have to burn you so bad with my mad skills."

His father lands on the branch a little too hard causing a _crack_ to sound from the tearing wood. Both men leap to another branch where Natsu turns to him. A challenging gleam takes to his jade eyes and he smirks.

"I'll teach you if you can keep up. One of these days those fancy tricks are gonna get us all into trouble."

Silver snorts. "No worse than any of your tricks."

Natsu hums, crouching to set his hands on the branch in between his feet. "We'll agree to disagree. If you wanna learn to trunk hop now's a good time to do it since we're so close to town. Copy me."

The teen does as he says, crouching beside him though while Natsu keeps a light grip with just his fingertips Silver grasps the bark with his whole hands.

"Now, once you get going your speed will help you keep a pretty good grip. It's the getting started that'll throw you for a loop. Watch." He leaps, using his arms to push off while his feet give propulsion similar to a frog leaping off of a lily pad.

Slamming into a trunk he's only there for a handful of seconds before he leaps forward again, this time angling his body to be adjacent to the next trunk when he hits it.

He repeats the leap again before landing on another branch four trees away. When he stops moving he rises to his feet and turns around. "Now you try!"

Silver swallows, his eyes darting from tree to tree in nervousness, then he bends down, his eyes falling to his hands and he stops…

There, beside him, where his father had stood are eight tiny holes punctured into the bark. It's a minute detail, one he would've missed any other time, but now he takes a second look at the trees around him—particularly the ones his father had bounced off of. He finds the same thing, eight small holes punctured into the bark exactly where his father's hands had come in contact with the wood.

And he grins.

His grip on the wood loosens, his palms coming off the wood until only his fingertips remain.

"Snow make: claws." Murmuring the spell under his breath, Silver watches the small snowflakes form around his fingers, each digit turning into a miniature white animal claw.

When he grabs the bark the claws dig in, eight tiny holes punching into the wood. Still grinning he launches off the branch, angling toward the first trunk.

The first landing isn't easy; he hits too hard nearly throwing him off the tree to the ground far below. Only his snow claws digging into the wood prevent him from completely going down. The tree apparently doesn't like the hard impact for he hears a deep groan from the wood.

He flinches, pushing off after he picks his next landing point. It takes a couple times before he understands what his father is talking about but eventually he's bouncing from tree to tree in circles around his father.

Natsu laughs, watching his son for a few more minutes before he calls out, "Alright, you got the idea. Now let's go. The sun is setting and your father is gonna blow his lid."

"Okay!" Silver calls out, changing his direction toward the town. So focused is he on bouncing that he doesn't remember a major point until he can see the church spire through the trees. He groans, glancing over his shoulder for his father. "Hey, Dad, how do I stop?"

He has to stop anyway, his claws are almost completely gone. No, wait, they are gone. _Crap._ Even as the thought crosses his mind he slips off the tree he bounced at and begins falling again.

"Son of a biscuit eating bitttch!"

No time. No time. He's falling _fast_ and no time for his father to catch him. His mind runs through the list of spells he's mastered and comes up with the same he'd used earlier to ease his landing.

"Snow make: Bank!"

Deja vu. Only no wolves this time to laugh at him. Still, as he hits the snow bank an image of Lycan rolling over with his huffing laughter flashes across his mind.

When he finds the wolf again he'll kill him.

Silver squirms, his movements becoming frantic when he realizes his head first approach into the snow bank has pinned his arms to his sides while his feet move free in the air.

A hand grabs his foot and he stills, his ears barely able to pick up the sound of his father's laughter through the snow. Then the snow around him is melting, the warm air around his legs and feet giving him a pretty good idea of what's happening.

Once he has more room to move his arms he squirms backward until he pops out of the snowbank, the snow and water forcing his wild hair to stick up and out at crazier angles.

He's wild-eyed, staring at everything and nothing at once. Only his father's rumbling laughter gets him to focus long enough to shake the water from his hair and look up at the pinkette.

Natsu grins, offering a hand to him. "Well, that explains what happened when I found you earlier."

Accepting the hand he smiles sheepishly. "Yeah, I wasn't watching where I was going and underestimated a leap. The wolves got a kick out me falling out of a tree, myself not so much."

They walk down the rapidly melting snowbank, preferring to walk the rest of the way to town instead of taking to the trees once more. They crest a ridge, coming to a stop in the shadows of the trees to overlook the small town and Natsu shrugs.

"I know you don't like to hear it but being around those wolves teaches you as much as your father and I ever could. We've taught you how to hunt, how to use your magic, and how to blend in with the humans, but those wolves," He turns, setting a hand on Silver's shoulder. "Silver, when you're with those wolves, or hell, even just in the forest, in general, we get to see a side of you we haven't seen for nearly fifty years. You smile, you laugh, that icy mask of yours shatters and we get to see our little bit of trouble again."

Natsu pats his shoulder, walking to the edge of the ridge overlooking the town. "What I'm trying to say is, remember to laugh at yourself once in awhile. You still have another fifty years before you even have to _think_ about being an adult and worrying about the politics of our kind. Be a kid. Laugh, cry, run rampant and play pranks for all I care. Just don't look at the world in such a serious light when you're still a kid."

And he's gone, leaping lightly from rooftop to rooftop in the shadows of the dying sun. Silver's feet feel as if they've been frozen to the ground.

He knows he's become quiet since they announced his mother's pregnancy nearly eight months ago—often only replying to any of his parents with short polite answers but he didn't think it had become so bad. He's just been trying to wrap his mind around everything that has occurred. From moving to this _town_ a decade ago to even the mere idea of having a little sibling.

Even now the idea of the latter has his mind shirking away toward easier—and safer—thoughts.

The former however has his eyes going back to the subject in question. They've lived here for nearly a decade now, their home located ironically in the church whose steeple towers high above the rest of the buildings.

The town of Magnolia as the founders had named it. His father had met them, had known the founders for a short time before he returned to their home much deeper in the forest.

When he had returned Silver had sat for hours listening to stories about the little settlement located directly on the barrier. He'd heard the tales of the town building around the millennial protectors, of integrating them into the town itself without disrupting the border or the magic within.

Three decades later they had moved. His fire loving father having struck a deal with the founders early on that when the town was built they would have a home hidden within.

Looking out over the town sitting tall and proud—an equal mixture of nature and humanity—he wonders why. Why move to a town of humans when their cove was perfect? Why live on the border where it would be easy for Hunters to find them? And finally, buried under everything else, he wonders why the atmosphere so heavy with the taste of magic feels as if it is waiting for a storm to break?

A storm so strong he dreads the thought of the damage it will cause. How many lives will be lost? Homes destroyed? Lives changed for eternity?

The last thought has him looking across the town to the squat building set on the edge of the only lake within fifty miles. The only bar in town, it has always drawn his attention. Something about it has him wanting to keep a careful distance from it. One he knows his parents wouldn't object to him keeping.

He shakes his head. Of course, he wouldn't want to go around it, drunk humans are the worst kind of food after all. With that last thought in his mind, he leaps onto the roof of the closest building. The sun has set, his fathers will be waiting.

Tonight if he succeeds, will prove he can hunt for himself and won't require a chaperone to do so. But _only_ if he succeeds.

As on every moon, he finds his fathers waiting on the roof of the church in the shadow of the steeple. When he lands he pulls on the mask, the one his fire wielding father seems to so dislike and greets them with a nod.

Gray, leaning against the steeple, walks up to him. "How were Lycan and the others?"

He might not show it, but Silver knows his ice father has as soft a spot in his heart for the wolves as he does himself. The teen smirks.

"Still as troublesome and tricky as ever, Pops. Lycan sends his wishes."

His father chuckles. "Glad to hear it." He sets a hand on Silver's shoulder, similar to what his other father had done earlier, and turns him in a specific direction. Gray leans down a gleam of pride in his navy blue eyes. "Are you ready for tonight?"

Silver nods. Of course, he's ready. He's been ready since his parents started throwing around the words _solo hunt_ moons ago. Tonight. Now.

His solo hunt is starting now.

"You'll be taking the northwest quadrant to hunt tonight. Your father and I will be covering the northeast and southeast. Remember, make your kill then—"

"Get rid of the evidence. No human is to know of our presence."

His father pats his shoulder with a nod. "Good. Go. Be back before first beams or we come hunting."

First sunbeam? Ha, he'll be back before Libra has tipped her scales. Oh, this'll be fun. He'll make his parents proud.

* * *

 **Grizz: YAS! Monster chapter is done and posted! *falls back in bed* Now I can finally sleep.**

 **DP: *bangs pot with a spoon* Wakey wakey eggs and bakey!**

 **Grizz: Nooooo! Deadpool leave me be! *groans covering head with blanket***

 **DP: *grins* No can do, Grizz, you gotta be up and at 'em. *pulls off blanket***

 ***grabs Grizz by foot and hauls her down hallway***

 **Grizz: I don't wanna! I want to sleep for the next six months before I have to remind the readers I'm alive.**

 **DP: You can sleep in August. Afterall you're gonna be exhausted after work anyway. *rips open basement door* For now you have to focus on NaLu Week 2018!**

 ***Throws Grizz down steps***

 **Grizz: Ow! Fuck you! I'm not even doing NaLu Week!**

 **DP: *grins* You lie! Oh how you lie, my dear Grizz. I've already seen the prompts and summaries you've chosen. Gotta admit I can't decide which one I like more. All eight were looking good.**

 **Grizz: I hate you!**

 **DP: I love you too. Now get to work and write the one-shots. I'll let you back out after you've posted the last one. *grins* *slams door shut with multiple locks***

 **DP: *turns to screen* Now readers, in case you're wondering what that's about. Grizz will be participating in NaLu Week 2018. She and her devil friend have already set up quite a bit and this _extra_ measure is just to make sure she gets it done on time to send to her beta. That said I hope you enjoyed the updated chapter this week because it doesn't look like she'll be updating much else until after NaLu Week is done.**

 ***Basement door thuds***

 **Grizz: Wade! You better not be talking to my readers!**

 **DP: *cackles* 'til next time Grizz's readers, this is Deadpool signing off!**


	5. Fairy Tail Coven

**With time wounds will heal, scars will fade, and nightmares will be no more. But how long does it take for these scars to fade? Weeks? Months? Years? Centuries? Sometimes, our past isn't as far behind us as we think...**

* * *

Chapter 5

Fairy Tail Coven

Picking up on a strong heartbeat, the teenager pauses in his steps. He hadn't wanted to come within range of the bar but… his hunting had taken him longer and farther then he wishes he had to be. As it is he has to force himself to tune out the laughter and comradery of the bar three blocks away.

Silver turns his head, narrowing in on the heartbeat until he manages to track it to the sidewalk in front of the building he's on. He walks forward, bending down to stay out of the light of the lamps, catching sight of the human he'd heard.

Said human walks quietly along the sidewalk, a second human, a red-haired woman in an odd metal armor and purple skirt walking ahead of him. Quickly writing off the odd woman, he turns his attention to the man. From where he stands twenty-feet above, he can't smell any liquor coming off the man so there's no chance he's been drinking.

 _Not drunk? Check. Alone? Check. In view of witnesses? Yes, but not for long._

The teen grins, turning and leaping into the alley ahead of the man. Just as the man passes the alley he darts out, wrapping a hand around the man's mouth and hauling him back into the shadows. Before the man can realize what's happening, Silver sinks his teeth into the man's neck.

At first, the man feebly struggles. Then as Silver draws more of the precious liquid from him, he begins to slow, his struggles slowing until they finally stop. Silver pulls away, licking the last traces of blood off his lips. When he catches sight of the terror frozen in the man's eyes he closes them, calling up the spell his father had taught him for getting rid of the evidence.

"Ice Make: Deep—"

"Stop right there." He looks up, surprised at the growl to find the red-haired woman from earlier standing at the entrance of the alley. What catches his attention, however, is the large sword he doesn't remember seeing her have before. _Unless…_

Silver tenses, leaping away from the dead human at a quick and furious pace. His fathers had told him of battle with others of their kind. Being a Born he knows he'll have a good chance but as it is he's only a century and a half old...he doesn't know how old this competitor is.

 _I need to get to Dad or Pops._ A gleam catches his attention and he ducks out of the way in just enough time to avoid a flying sword.

Jumping head over heels, he plants one hand on the ground, twisting his hips and his legs he chants, "Snow Make: Twister!" Snowflakes flare up from his feet, copying their twisting motion and quickly forming a large vortex that takes out the female's sight.

When he's sure she can't see, he jumps out the backside of the vortex, leaping up the side of the building to take to the rooftops. Halfway to where he knows his fathers to be hunting, there's a sharp pinch in his side. He screeches in pain, miscalculating the next jump and falling into the alley.

The teen hits the ground hard, his head bouncing with the impact. In the time it takes for the stars to clear from his sight, the female has caught up to him. This time, though, she wears a cheetah print two-piece outfit with a green skirt tied around the back of her waist.

She stands over him, brown eyes swirling crimson with anger. She aims one of the swords in her hands at his heart, snarling at him viciously. "Who the hell do you think you are stepping on Fairy Tail Coven territory?"

"It ain't your territory. I'm free to hunt where I want." He snarls in return, his head clearing.

Her sword comes closer, the point digging into his skin. He's too far away for his fathers to hear him and not high enough for them to see him. His first hunt and he's about to be killed. The irony to the fact doesn't escape him.

 _Pops, I'm sorry._

As the point digs in deeper he hisses, missing the growl that comes from the other end of the alley. The female, however, does not. She looks up, her eyes narrowing at a sight behind his head.

Before she can act Silver hears, "Ice Make: Cannon!" And he grins.

The blast hits the female before she can react, knocking her nearly completely out of the alley. While she's busy, Silver rolls to his knees, one hand going to his side when he feels his shirt stick to the skin.

"Silver!" The teen looks up, grimacing a smile at his fathers.

"Hey, Dad. Hey, Pops. What are you doing here?"

The duo walks up to him, keeping an eye on the female as they do. His ice wielding father stops in front of him, scowling at him holding his side. Then he turns to his other father, sharing a look before the pinkett walks up the alley, standing in between the female and them.

He pulls back his arm, then slams his flattened palm into the ground. "Fire Dragon's Barricade!"

When the wall of fire reaches above the tops of the building, his ice wielding father urges him down the alley. Silver takes after him without question. Alley after alley, he and his father run down until the steeple of their home is in sight still some blocks off. There his father stops, his expression serious as he turns to him.

"You wanna tell me what happened?"

His hand still on his side, Silver shrugs. "Can't really tell you. I made my kill. While I was getting rid of it, she came up out of nowhere. You haven't taught me how to fight against others of our kind so I did what came to mind. I ran," He grimaces, raising his hand to look at the still bleeding cut. "or tried to at least."

Gray, noticing this, walks closer. "Let me see."

He does as commanded, gingerly lifting his shirt to reveal the wound to his father. His father's brows furrow in thought and he glances up, a soft blue glow already appearing around his hand.

"We're gonna need to stitch you up when we get back home. For now, the best I can do is freeze it shut so your blood-scent won't attract that female again." Silver groans his dislike and Gray's lips twitch. "Too bad, you should've paid more attention to your surroundings. Ready?"

Before Silver can reply, Gray presses his ice lined hand to the teen's side. Silver hisses in pain, jolting forward to lay his head against his father's shoulder. Thankfully almost as soon as the biting cold touches his skin it's gone, the pain of the injury numbing as well.

After a minute, Silver steps back, shaking his head to tune out the cold numbness. He glares at his father. "A little warning next time?"

Gray smirks, flicking him in the head. "Pay attention more and maybe there won't be a 'next time'."

His mind goes back to what tonight was about and his mask cracks, bearing his worry and fear for his father to see. "Pops, what about my solo hunt? I know I messed up, but please? You can't take this away from me."

A chuckle rumbles from the alley behind and both father and son turn to find their third family member walking out of the shadows. "I think, Little-Bit, that even if we tried to take it from you, you would just steal it back."

He blushes, grateful for the darkness of the alley to hide it from his fathers. Meanwhile, Gray turns to Natsu.

"How'd it go?"

The pinkett merely shakes his head, finally catching up to them. "Circled back to chase her once she took after me and lost her by the bar. Not sure what's going on but we were right to be cautious of the place. When I go back out for Lucy's hunt tomorrow night, I'll check it out."

Gray frowns. "I don't like the sound of this one bit. Let's get back home and we'll all discuss it."

Together the trio makes their way back onto the rooftops. Gray and Natsu keeping particularly close to Silver as they finally approach their home in the church.

Dropping into the alley beside the church, Gray approaches the dumpster beside the building, easily pulling it back just enough for Natsu to slip behind it. The pinkett pushes on a brick, triggering a lever that has bricks upwards of a door in height folding back to reveal an entrance.

Silver follows his fire wielding father into the entrance, walking into the pitch black hall. Behind him, Gray follows after them, pulling the dumpster back into its place before pressing on another brick in the hall to close the entranceway. Together the trio walk the short pitch black distance in silence. Said silence so total that even the sound of their muted breathing and light footsteps can be heard bouncing off the walls.

Natsu's foot dips when he steps on a particular brick, causing yet another brick door to open, this time a few feet in front of them in the ceiling. Leaping through the hatch he grabs the first rung of a metal ladder leading up the chute and quickly ascends.

On the last rung, he leaps again, this time jumping out of the chute to land lightly on his feet in a large loft-like space dimly lit with collections of candles placed strategically about the area.

The teen lands beside him, looking around the space and frowning when he can't seem to find the object of his search. Finally, he turns to the pinkett asking softly, "Where do you think Mama is?"

Natsu shrugs, turning back to step on the board closing the hatches leading to the ladder and leaving the wooden floor clear. "She's probably in the study. You know how she gets when she's reading."

"Or maybe she's resting." Natsu looks up, finding Gray holding open their bedroom door to reveal the blonde laying in the bed fast asleep, one hand gently resting on her swollen stomach. Quietly closing the door, Gray turns to Silver. "Come on, let's get you patched up then we'll discuss what to do about this new development."

The teen follows his fathers through an open doorway into a small kitchen area. He walks over to the two-person table sitting in a corner and sits on the edge. His blue eyes follow his fathers as they move about the somewhat small room, his fire-wielding father grabbing the first-aid kit from a cabinet while the other takes a bowl to the sink.

Knowing the routine by now, Silver takes off his shirt, his eyes immediately going to the ice crystals turning red along the slice. He gingerly runs a finger along one of the crystals, watching it flake off and tumble to the floor.

"You got lucky." He nods, glancing up at his fire-wielding father.

"I kinda thought so." His brows furrowing in thought, he looks to his ice-wielding father as the man approaches. "What kind of magic did she have though? I've never seen anything like it."

As Gray hands the bowl of water to Natsu to warm up he arches an eyebrow. "Of course you wouldn't. You've never seen any magic but ours and your Mother's. The female's magic was an odd one but it's not so rare to see among our kind. It's called—"

"Requip magic," Natsu mutters sourly, nodding to the teen. "Arm over your head, this is gonna hurt."

Silver does as commanded, lifting his arm over his head to bare his side to his fathers. When Natsu rubs the warm cloth against his skin he hisses, never prepared for the nearly polar opposite temperatures of his fathers' treatments. To take his mind off the situation he decides to keep prodding them for information, the female's magic intriguing him.

"Just what is Requip magic?"

Gray smirks, glancing at the pinkett. "You're gonna have to ask Flame-Brain. He's had more experience with it then I have." In answer Natsu growls, casting a crimson glare at his mate before turning back to Silver.

"Requip magic is something similar to what your Mama can do. It involves calling people or materials from a different pocket of space into use here. Lucy's is more along the line of contracting the celestial spirits into borrowing their power whereas the one we faced tonight seemed to use weapons." Hearing a snigger from the ice user Natsu rolls his eyes. "And maybe some requip users can send others to a different dimension."

The duo trades places, Gray picking up the needle and thread while Natsu stands in the teen's line of sight. Silver groans at the thread dragging through his skin and looks to the pinkett.

"Is this one of those stories from before you met Mama and my mother?"

For a second the needle pauses, Gray looking at his mate in surprise and Natsu smiles softly, nodding at him. "Yeah, Little-Bit. It was about two centuries after we escaped the Coven. We were, oh let's see." He pauses, turning to Gray. "Just where were we?"

Gray rolls his eyes, returning to his work. "We were a few miles outside Iceberg and on the run from half a Coven of angry bastards because you decided to blow up their nest."

"It wasn't my fault one of them decided to try and take our heads." The pinkett pouts, looking away from father and son.

Silver sighs. " _Anyway_ ," Adding stress to the word to keep his fathers from falling into an argument. Gods help them all if they wake Mama up again. "Where'd this Requip user come in?"

Unsurprised by the blank look he receives, he just waits for his fathers to continue. Thankfully his fire favoring father shakes his head first, grimacing sheepishly. "I fought off the one who wanted our heads and ended up burning down their nest. We weren't particularly worried since it was a small Coven with no babes but the bastards were kind of pissed at us so we ran. We got to the border of Iceberg before they finally caught up with us." Then he scowls.

"Damn Requip bastard managed to lay a trap before we could cross the border which subsequently would've gotten us out of their territory. I ended up in a volcano in another dimension while your father ended up having to fight the bastard to undo the spell."

"So then what was the big deal? I thought you liked going volcano diving?"

Natsu shudders. "It's one thing to go volcano diving into a regular volcano where my magic protects me. It's a whole other thing when a hole appears under your feet and you're dropping hundreds of feet into the mouth of a dragon large enough to eat Magnolia in one bite."

Snipping off the last of the sutures, his ice wielding father arches an eyebrow. "So that's what happened." The pinkett nods and he frowns as he returns the supplies to the first aid kit. "That explains a lot of things now that I think about it."

Somewhat lost now, Silver looks between the two. "What's that mean?"

In response, Gray shakes his head looking back at him. "Nothing you need to worry about, Silver. This is just something we need to discuss later."

 _This is an AB conversation so see your way out of it._ Silver snorts at the thought, more than a little disgruntled his parents are still cutting him out of their 'adult' conversations as if he's still a little kid.

Noticing his slightly aggravated look, his fire-wielding father frowns. "Silver don't be like that."

Silver tilts his head giving the older Vampire a sickly sweet smile. "By whatever do you mean?"

Looking at the aggravation that crosses his face, Silver has a pretty good idea why his fathers never get along for any length of time. He's seen it many times growing up. His ice-wielding father's calm and collected personality clashing with his fire-wielding father's own excitable, open and expressive personality.

In his opinion, they really are like the elements they embody. Such that he sometimes has to remember not to pick on them too much. This time however...he's still a bit aggravated that female got the drop on him.

Natsu bares a fang at the teen in something akin to aggression and turns to his mate. "We still need to decide what we'll do about this new development with the female." His fathers must be in agreement on the subject for they both turn to him, Gray frowning in thought as he looks at him.

"Silver, she said something to you. What was it?"

 _Oh yeah, she did say something, didn't she?_ Confused, Silver tilts his head, his eyes narrowing in thought. In almost the next instant her words come back to him and he inwardly flinches. _They're really not gonna like this one._

Still, he knows he has to answer them. They're his fathers after all.

"She said something about stepping on Coven territory." As he expects, the elder Vampires react to the word, though more vehemently then he'd first thought they would.

His normally calm and collected father calls the name of every god and then some the teen has yet to hear of. On the other hand his fire-wielding father bursts into flames, a very bright blue flame.

Going by experience, Silver knows it to mean he's not just angry, he's in fact _pissed._ The teen may have only seen it a handful of times before but when he does it usually ends up with acres of woodland, animals, humans pretty much everything within perhaps a three-mile radius turned to ash. Since he'd prefer not to have the town reduced to that, Silver does the only thing he can think of. He takes the bowl of water sitting beside him and he dumps it on his father's head.

The action serving three purposes at once.

It puts out the fire beginning to flicker to life on the wood floor, distracts his ice-wielding father from his chain of curses against the gods which _he really has to remember_ , and the teen himself gets a good laugh at the look of shock that crosses the fire-wielding Vampire's face. Gray's lips twitch, the only sign Silver gets before his father starts chuckling. The teen can't help himself, he starts sniggering as well when his fire-wielding father's expression doesn't change.

Though after a minute Natsu does shake himself out of his shock, quite literally in fact with the extra droplets hitting both his mate and their son. Silver holds up his hands, glaring at the pinkett.

"Thank you," He deadpans. "It's not like I shower enough when I go swimming with Lycan." More than happy to have gotten his payback Natsu smirks. Seeing the self-satisfied expression, Silver turns to his other father. "So what do we do about the female and her 'coven territory?'" He adds air quotes around the last two words and Gray frowns.

"You do nothing, Little-Bit."

Silver yelps, rubbing the sore skin of his forehead Natsu flicked while speaking then glares at him. "And why not?"

The ice-user crosses his arms over his chest, looking sternly at his son. "You won't be doing anything because you'll remain inside with your mother until we sort out the boundaries of this supposed Coven."

His father's statement ticks him off. A part of his brain acknowledges that they have a point, that he's nowhere near ready to take on a fight with another of their kind. But the rest of his mind falls under the thought that he's old enough for his solo hunt but not to protect his _home._ He glares at them, his eyes going crimson in his anger.

"I am not a _kid_." He hisses, standing up. When did he become as tall as them? The teen doesn't know and quite frankly he doesn't care at this point. "I don't need to be kept inside to avoid the sun, I don't need you to take down my kills for me, and I don't need you to tell me how to care for myself."

Sensing his fire-wielding father's intentions he ducks the hand about to cuff him in the head and walks to the door. "Silver, we are your fathers! Don't turn your back on us!" He ignores them, storming over to where the hatch is hidden. As he plants his foot on the latch he looks over his shoulder at them.

"Watch me."

He leaps down the hatch, dodging a blast of ice and takes off down the hall at a run, only pausing long enough to open the door outside before leaping the dumpster. Hearing a set of footsteps behind him, he throws out a hand, an unspoken spell causing a flurry of snowflakes to block his fathers' view as he disappears down an alley.

"SILVER!"

The teen shakes his head. He swears he hears _fear_ in his father's voice.

 _I'm sorry, Dad but I'm not a kid. I'll prove it to you one way or another._

 _ **XxX**_

Natsu skids to a stop at the beginning of the alley, the flurry of snowflakes blocking his sight and preventing him from picking up his son's scent. Anger and fear war within him, pushing him to find the boy. To drag him back to their home, tuck him away from danger.

"SILVER!"

Without thinking he takes a step forward, itching to do just that when his mate takes his arm in an iron grip. The action stops him from running off as well and he snarls, crimson eyes glaring down the alley.

"Leave it, Natsu. There's nothing we can do." Any other day the pinkett would let his mate have his way, would let his icy calm tone cool the fire raging in his veins. Not tonight. Tonight it's just too much.

Curling his fist he turns on his longtime friend, unaware said fist is already lit with blue flames. Before it can land and cause damage Gray catches it with an ice-coated hand of his own. Though his movements speak of quiet anger his crimson eyes tell the pinkett another story. One filled with heartbreak and grief.

Just the sight of his battle-brother's broken gaze douses the fire in his veins, leaving him nothing more than an exhausted shell of himself. He falls into his mate's embrace, the long forgotten feeling of tears burning at the back of his eyes. He of all people never thought he'd feel like this. Not about another of their kind, let alone a child that isn't even his blood and yet… It's like there's ice settling in his soul; a feeling he hasn't felt in a long time.

Without even noticing it, that boy has climbed through every defense Natsu built around his heart over the centuries, each one reinforced to protect him from the loss he's felt ever since he himself was a child. Only his mates have managed to get so close but he also knows they have their own scars they've protected during their lifetimes. Somehow, within their time with the boy, they never noticed him crawling through their defenses, disarming each and every one of them until just the sight of the boy's smile and the sound of his laughter could bring a smile to their own faces.

Just like Lucy, Natsu too had come to see the boy as his own, raised him, cared for him, protected him from any dangers. And now… Now just the thought their son is running around in Coven territory they yet have no information on terrifies him.

Images, _memories,_ of a coven long gone has the pinkett digging his claws into his mate's bare shoulder nearly hard enough to draw blood. "Gray," He chokes. "We need to… 'fore..."

The ice-type hushes him, returning the bear hug as fiercely as he's given. "We will. They won't get their claws on him."

Gods, he hasn't been this terrified since that night. Since…

Gulping a deep breath, he tucks his head into his mate's shoulder. His scent enshrouds him, winter-grown mint fresh and cool clears his mind, calms him down. He exhales. If there's a flame behind the breath Gray says nothing, seeking comfort in the fire-type's embrace just as much as Natsu does his. And finally, when both can separate past from present, they step back meeting each other's gaze.

Slowly the crimson in their eyes melts away leaving jade locked on navy blue. One extends a hand, the other grabbing it with ease. It is a feeling of connection, one they've never been able to explain to others of their kind let alone their mates that brings them so much relief.

"To all, we are one," Gray murmurs, his hand coated in ice.

Though Natsu can't find it in him to grin at the familiar phrase he does coat his hand in now red and orange flames. "To one we are all."

Their bond reinforced, the relief carried with the gesture has both allowing a small tight smile. "And together we can do anything." At the simultaneous murmur, both expressions darken, their eyes flashing with determination. Gray's lip twitches revealing a fang.

"Are you just gonna lie around while I hunt down my son?"

Natsu snorts. "Like hell, I will. He's mine too."

* * *

 **Grizz: *hums tune and continues typing away***

 **Deadpool: Did you just? *gapes***

 **Grizz: *arches eyebrow* Did I just what, Wade?**

 **DP: *waves wildly* Why?! Just why?!**

 **Grizz: I have no idea what you're sputtering about, but I wish you would go do it elsewhere. I have some writing to do.**

 **DP: *glares* You are _EVIL._**

 **Grizz: And you seem to be figuring this out just now?**

 **DP: IT'S NOT FAIR! Why are you gonna send sweet and innocent out into the world of the Coven?!**

 **Grizz: *points at Wade* That right there is why. *Grins darkly* Everybody has fallen for Silver. It's time for the noose to tighten and for nice things to go bad.**

 **DP: *throws hands up* This is why we can't have nice things. You, Miss Dark-and-Evil always go and ruin them.**

 **Grizz: *eyeroll* Yeah, yeah. I never said I was a saint.**

 **DP: *turns to readers* Folks, I shit you not. Run while you can! Grizz is on the warpath and no story is safe. The warning issued, we wish y'all a good night and sweet dreams.**

 **Grizzly—and Deadpool!—out for the night.**

 **P.S.**

 ** _KJacket,_ A hint? Dude, there's nothing but trouble ahead.**

 ** _Rae,_ Can I have those cookies now? *pouts* *begs* Please?**

 ** _Adonisx,_ *bows* Thank you. How was this one?**

 ** _Pixie Pixel!_ *coughs* The elder did more damage then you would think. Will you be able to keep up with the trouble coming?**


	6. Double Mate Marks?

**Deadpool: Grizz! I'm boooooored!**

 **Grizz: *eye twitches* Why don't you go take a nap?**

 **DP: *pouts* I just took one. I don't wanna take another.**

 **Grizz: Then why don't you, oh I don't know, go clean up any the million messes you've made in the last hour, or take a long walk off a short pier?**

 **DP: *perks up* Mind if I listen to your playlist? I promise I'll use ear phones!**

 **Grizz: I- *looks at phone then back at Deadpool* *sighs* I'm gonna regret this. Go ahead.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Double Mate Marks?

Rolling down an asphalt paved street, the spokes of a bicycle wheel clack against an old playing card. As the bike cruises down the street, the teenaged boy riding it reaches into a white pouch in the basket, withdrawing a bundle of paper. With a ring from the bell on the bike's handlebars, he tosses it at a doorway. In this way the newspaper boy continues on with his route, working street by street from one side of town to the other.

Along the way he waves to the early rising people getting on with their own morning routines, often shouting a greeting or giving one in return before continuing on his way. In front of one building, an old bar with closed shutters covered in peeling paint and a sagging porch he slows to a stop. He grabs four copies of the newspaper from his bag and leaning his bike against the railing worn smooth by many hands over the years walks up the creaking steps to the currently closed double doors. Without a second thought he knocks on one door then sets the newspapers down and returns to his bike, once more continuing on with his route.

When the clacking from the old playing card fades away one of the old doors opens just wide enough for a slim, pale white hand to slide out and grab the papers. Tightly in its grasp, the hand retreats into the darkness, the door closing in its wake.

On the other side, a platinum blonde haired woman hums, opening one paper to read the front page while she turns back to face the room at large. Due to the shutters being closed very little of the early sunshine seeps through, only allowing a few bright beams to illuminate the space. Not that it matters much to the nearly two dozen creatures in various states of unconsciousness sprawled across the large room.

Some men and women are sprawled on tables or across the floor while others copy their position on the railing lined balcony making up what would be a second floor of the building. Even higher than those, forty feet above the ground the blonde can make out more sleeping in different positions among the rafters.

"Paper's here!" The platinum blonde calls out. Across the room, there are multiple groans of acknowledgment and when a man lying on a rafter holds up a hand the woman doesn't waste a blink to throw an extra copy up to him. The woman pauses long enough to chuck a copy at a blue-haired man hanging halfway off the second-floor railing before walking across the room to take up her seat behind the bar. The man yelps, falling off the railing to hit the ground below and the gathered creatures groan in singular annoyance at the unnecessary noise. The woman, on the other hand, giggles.

The short blond-haired man on the rafter snorts, folding the paper down to glare at the victim. "Shouldn't have fallen asleep like that, Bickslow. Mira gets you like that every time."

Bickslow groans, one hand coming up to brush through his smushed mohawk. He sits up, glaring at first the platinum blonde then the blond-haired man. Grumbling under his breath, he gets up, walking over to where Mira has already set out a glass. "If it weren't for your damn mate, Laxus, I wouldn't fall anyway." In the rafters, the blond chuckles, returning to his newspaper.

Giggling again, Mira tilts her head; the perfect picture of innocence were it not for the yellow and white lightning mark illuminated on her neck by a stray beam of sunlight. "Now, now, you two. There's no reason to fight."

"That you are correct." At the sound of the new voice, all three pause in their conversation to turn to a small elderly man standing on the railing across from where Bickslow had fallen. The man is nearly completely bald, only a small ring of snow-white hair ringing the crown of his head while a mustache hides his upper lip. He stands no more than four feet at most but there is an aura around him that belies the strength and wisdom hiding in his onyx eyes. "The paper has only just arrived. It is much too early for any kind of bickering."

Laxus huffs. "We weren't arguing, Gramps. Just calling out Bicks."

The old man's eyes sparkle in amusement even as he leaps off the railing to land on the bar with a grace lending credence to his supernatural nature. "If you want to fight, Laxus, then do so later, when the bar is actually open."

Mira smiles, setting a glass of blood in front of the old man. "Good morning, Elder, I trust your night went well?"

His eyes crinkle when he smiles, accepting the final copy of the newspaper from the barmaid and settling onto the stool with his glass of blood. "Indeed it did. How did—" He's cut off when a door slams open. They look up, some of the other recently sleeping vampires now lifting their bleary eyes as well to find an aggravated redhead storming in from the back door.

She kicks the door closed, hard enough for it to jam shut before storming up to the bar. There she slides onto a stool, slamming a hand on the counter with a growl. "I swear I will find them and I will kill them."

Without needing to be asked, Mira slides a slice of strawberry cake in front of the angered vampire. Elder waits until the redhead has taken a bite of the confection to ask, "Who do you mean to kill?"

"Rogues." The redhead snarls, her grip on the fork nearly bending it in half. "There are Rogues in Magnolia. I lost them last night but I will hunt them down and I will carve them limb from limb."

"What did she just say?"

"Rogues?"

"On our territory?"

"Who would be crazy enough?"

Emotions ranging from panic to anger begins to spread among the Coven. Elder, realizing something unwanted may occur if he does not step in, climbs onto the bar counter. "Oi! Brats!" Almost immediately the bar is once again quiet, every vampire present turning to look to their leader. When he's sure he has their attention he makes sure to keep his own expression passive. "If there is a reason to go rampaging through town, I will decide if it's worth it. If there is a danger, we will decide who to send to dispatch it. We do not need to incite panic among the Humans by revealing we are hiding in their midst, am I clear?"

Multiple variations of "Yes, Elder." and agreements come from the gathered vampires. Many of which return to their seats or gather at the tables while Elder turns to the redhead.

"Erza, start from the beginning."

The redhead sighs, setting her fork back down on her plate. "I was escorting the Mayor home from his office like you asked yesterday, Elder when we passed the storefronts and were ambushed. I had not realized it at first, the ambusher was well trained in stealth but when I looked back I found the Mayor missing so I turned back." She closes her eyes, dipping her head in anguish. "By the time I found him it was too late."

Hisses rise from the crowd as the realisation sinks in. However, a quick look from Elder has those gathered quieting once more.

"Go on, what happened next." Elder gently urges her.

She grips her fork in both hands, her chocolate eyes swirling crimson. "The Rogue fled and I chased after him. Managed to injure him then pin him when two other Rogues came from nowhere and surprised me. After that, they split off. I chased one, ended up losing that one and went back to try and find the trail only for it and the Mayor's body to have been completely turned to ash. I spent the rest of the night trying to find a trail of any kind but came up empty-handed." She bows her head again, this time in Elder's direction. "Forgive me, Elder, I have failed you."

Elder shakes his head, black eyes soft with love for the female he sees as a daughter. "There is nothing to forgive, Erza. You tried your best. If we're only just learning about these Rogues then either they're good at hiding their tracks or they just moved into town." It hasn't escaped his attention what the older of the Coven have started whispering of. Rumors and worry meet his aged ears. One such rumor has him pausing. "Erza, these Rogues. Did they show what kind of magic they have?"

"Yes, Elder." She frowns in thought, her brows furrowing. "One of them, the one I injured used something I could only describe as Snow magic. As for the other two I can say for sure one used Fire magic."

More hissing, this time harried words pass from one vampire to the next. Elder has a feeling he knows who has come to Magnolia...and he's not sure if it's a good thing or a sign for more to come. Still, he refuses to allow rumors to sway his judgment. "The third," He rumbles, gaining a confused expression from her. "What magic did the third Rogue use?"

Some of his Coven are already on their feet, leaping higher into the building to snarl their distaste. Others are not far behind, only clinging to their tables while they wait for their suspicions to be confirmed. Erza, he must admit, deserves some credit for remaining calm beyond her obvious fury of losing her prey.

"I can only guess as I didn't get a good look but I believe the third used Ice magic."

…

He nearly goes deaf from the uproar. Scowling he turns to his coven, this time allowing his eyes to swirl crimson. " _That is ENOUGH!_ " Almost immediately the Coven goes quiet, nearly silent hisses and snarls voicing their distaste without attempting to raise his ire. If he were to be honest, his mind was made up on this subject after hearing her explanation. Now he just needs to convince his Coven. "We will not attack these Rogues. They are not a danger to our territory and will not attack us unless we attack them. If you see them, you may attempt to interact with them but you _are not_ under any circumstances _to attack them._ "

One of the eldest of his Coven, a blue-haired male he turns to as acting Elder when he needs to travel, stands up immediately gaining his attention. "Elder, are you sure about these Rogues? If what we're hearing is true then these are the same Fire and Ice users that killed their entire Coven. I'm all for accepting Rogues into the Coven to give them a home but these Rogues killed their _Elder,_ how can we be sure they won't come after you?"

 _We didn't have a choice, Gramps. It was kill or be killed and I wasn't about to lose my brother to keep my standing. Yes, he is infuriating and a dick and I sometimes want to burn him to ashes but without him, I would have no one._ Elder inhales, words he hasn't heard for centuries echoing through his mind.

"Trust me on this, Macao." He looks the man in his eyes, hoping to get his message across. "These Rogues are of no danger to us unless provoked. As it is, they'll have heard that this is Coven territory and will likely be moving on soon." His words calm the Coven down enough for most to drop from the rafters. After the scare, nearly everyone is awake now and so they begin splitting off into their own family groups. Even as he watches several mated pairs gravitate toward their other half, their minds beginning to slip onto other topics.

Something bothers Elder, something the redhead had said his Coven seemed to have missed. " _...something like Snow magic."_ He's been around a very long time, long enough to see the forest around them grow from a grassy plain to the magical shelter it is this very day. He's seen many things, magical and mundane alike in his life and travels. For a Fire user, Ice wielder, and Snow user to be traveling together there is only one possible reason for that and it is something he dreads will bring unneeded chaos to the Rogues and his Coven alike.

Shaking his head he grabs the paper and jumps down, heading toward the back door. He needs time, space, and to see someone if he's gonna have any chance to sort this out.

"Elder?" He pauses, looking up at the barmaid.

"Yes, Mirajane?"

She tilts her head, confusion clear in her ice blue eyes. "May I ask where you are going so early?"

He chuckles, folding the newspaper under his arm. "My dear, I have to go see a man about a wolf."

 _ **XxX**_

" _Ladies and gentlemen of the Coven! Tonight," Elder chuckles, glaring down on him with red eyes. They're not crimson like normal Vampires, they don't change with emotion or hunger. They're constantly red, constantly looking down on him, sneering at him because he_ — _no_ they— _are Changed. "Tonight Fire and Ice will go head to head. Only one will remain in the Coven. The loser's weakness will see them to the depths of hell."_

 _He is not Gray to the Born. He is Ice, nothing more than his magic. He does not care._

" _Gray," That is why he does not care. Subtly he tilts his head, letting his battle-brother know he's aware and is listening. His battle-brother will never see him as nothing more than his magic. To his brother, he is Gray. Tonight they are to go against each other. Life and death. He wonders who will see which._

" _Fighters! To your corners!" He nearly misses his brother's hiss under Elder's command. When he makes it to his starting corner he finds himself looking into his brother's jade eyes, into eyes that know what they're doing and what will happen._

 _It won't end in their lives being wasted._

 _His veins are no longer weighed down with his magic. No longer is he to be scared of not making it another night. His battle-brother has his back. Now he just needs to prove he has his._

" _May the best fighter win! Begin!"_

 _They charge, ice gathering on his hands even as fire gathers on his brother's. Closer and closer the elements come until…_

"Gray, get your ass up!"

The ice user yelps, leaping out of their bed to slam into the floor. Out of reflex, he's on his feet within seconds, shooting a barb of ice at the voice before his sleep-fogged mind can register who it is. He slides into a fighting stance without thinking, muscle memory preparing him for an attack. Instead, he's tackled to the ground, familiar warm arms wrapping around his torso and his legs becoming entangled with the others'.

His head smacks the floorboards. Sitting stunned for a second, a harsh nip on his collarbone has him opening his eyes to find his battle-brother and mate sitting on his chest looking down at him in concern. He sighs, rubbing a hand down his face. "Sry." Even after having slept most of the day away he's still too tired to attempt clear speech. Thankfully the pinkett understands.

Natsu smiles sadly, loosening his hold. "And I thought I was the only one who still reacted that badly." The ice-type can't help himself. He chuckles. The laugh goes from an amused chuckle to something akin to a cackle that leaves him breathless. After it's over close to a full minute later, he feels better, almost lighter after the fear and dread that had accompanied his dream.

Remembering his brother's comment he shakes his head. "I thought I was over it but I guess I'm not." He's not gonna bring up he hasn't had those dreams since they've moved to Fiore. That he hasn't had to be _afraid_ since Ca-elum. He's the cool-headed one, he has to keep calm. If he doesn't there's no telling what his battle-brother will do in return.

"It's fine." The pinkett shrugs, jumping to his feet to offer Gray a hand. Gratefully the raven takes it. "I was there with you, out of anyone I know how you feel." He grins, bumping into him playfully as they leave the room. "After all, you're the one who's there for me."

"And what am I? Chopped liver?" Both men look up at the question to find their very pregnant fiery blonde mate standing in the doorway to the study. He and Natsu suppress a flinch under a grin and approach the third member of their odd family. The blonde, as of late, has been terribly moody when not resting and Gray knows that part of it isn't just from the pregnancy.

He's noticed Silver retreating into himself, particularly more and more since they first told him of his soon to be big brother status. And the ice user isn't the only one. Both Natsu and Lucy have noticed it as well, the cold mask appearing more often than not with short polite answers and longer journeys into the forest at large.

"Of course not, Luce." At his mate's words, Gray pushes aside his tumbling thoughts. He's worried about their son, all three of them are particularly after his disappearance the night before but both the ice-user and the fire-wielder know that such worries are dangerous for both Lucy and their child. Instead, he sweeps around the blonde, wrapping his arms around her torso and laying his chin on her shoulder.

"You, our dear starlight," He murmurs gently. "Are our beautiful and glowing mate." Natsu slides to her right, purring in a hope to relax her as he nips gently at her neck. Gray doesn't miss the way the flames inscribed on her skin shiver in recognition, nor the way he feels the stars on his own neck warm in reply.

It is an odd family they make but he is happy.

Lucy sighs, turning to face them. "What am I gonna do with you three?"

He and Natsu share a look. It's thanks to their many centuries together that they're able to know what the other is thinking with just a glance. Their blonde doesn't quite know what has happened yet; they haven't had the heart to tell her their little bit of trouble may have bitten off more than he can chew and if they can help it she _will never_ find out. Not until he's old enough to have traveled to the other side of the world at least. Still, her question gives them the opening they need to go find their son and hopefully fix things before trouble finds him.

Gray bites back a smirk instead choosing to go for a look of indifference to allow his battle-brother to play his role. Natsu, on the other hand, grins playfully bearing his teeth at the woman. "Oh, you could let us go so we can go hunt down your dinner?"

She arches an eyebrow, setting a hand on a hip. Gray will never admit aloud but when their mate looks at them like this, like she can read the mischief they plan to cause before they've even caused it, it scares the hell out of him. Because quite frankly some of their mischief has earned them a night or two in a hammock and _it's just not fair_ when they get in trouble before they can even cause trouble.

"Okay," She finally crumbles, sighing in exasperation. "But no fighting, no burning anything, no freezing anything, and you better be back by dawn."

"Yes, _Mother._ " Hearing Natsu groan, the ice-user can safely say he has his part down to the letter. Now comes his part.

Before Natsu can dig his grave—something he's a little _too_ good at—Gray grabs him by his arm, hauling him to where the hatch to the ladder sits. "We promise, Luce, we'll behave. In fact, if you hear anything go wrong Na—Flame-Brain and I will both sleep in the hammock for the next moon." He smiles, tossing Natsu down the chute. "Love ya, see you in a few hours!"

With that, he leaps down after his battle-brother, both men racing for the door behind the dumpster in order to put space between them and the blonde. When the door behind the dumpster seals closed he stops, turning to where his brother stands with his hands on his hips and his eyes roaming the church at Gray's back. He scowls though the ice-type can tell it's something closer to a pout.

"I hate tricking her. She deserves to know what's going on."

The raven sighs, running a hand through his hair. "I know, Natsu, I don't like it either but what would happen to her and the baby if she got sick with worry? She shouldn't have to worry when this entire situation was our fault in the first place. We need to be the ones to track down Silver and fix things, not her."

When his brother acknowledges the truth of his statement with a tilt of his head, Gray turns his own to the sky. It's not too late, the color of the sky in the transition between purple to navy blue meaning it's still a good few hours until midnight. With that estimate in mind, he turns to the north where the subject of their suspicion lies. Natsu follows his gaze, just barely making out the light of the open bar bouncing off the buildings. "I take it we're gonna hold off on Lucy's hunt?"

He hums in agreement, rocking forward on the heel of his feet before looking at his brother. "High or low?"

"Heat rises." Having known what the pinkett was gonna say Gray takes off down the alley as soon as his brother speaks.

 _ **XxX**_

Navy blue eyes track a flash of light across the night sky, traitorous thoughts immediately going to how his mother is doing. Have his fathers told her of his disappearance? That he got angry and stormed off? _Is she worried?_ Stressed because a boy that isn't hers but she loves so much is out in the forest by himself?

The teen sighs, flopping back onto the rock still warmed by the far gone afternoon sun. "I messed up, didn't I?"

A huff of breath ruffles his hair and Silver tilts his head back to meet Lycan's silver eyes. The wisdom and amusement he finds in the wolf's eyes is an odd mix but it doesn't surprise him. Every wolf he's come into contact with in this forest has shown a level of intelligence that he sometimes thinks is better than his own. And no, he's not _jealous._ Lycan crawls forward, laying his massive head over Silver's face and the teen sputters, jerking to sit upright and scrub off the loose fur sticking to his face. "Thank you," He huffs at the wolf. "I needed a face full of fur."

The pack leader growls, standing up. He walks forward until his snout is close enough to be able to bite Silver's nose off and sits down, staring into the teen's eyes. If he hadn't known the wolf for as long as he has, Silver's not ashamed to admit he'd be scared out of his wits. But...this isn't just some wolf. This is _Lycan._ And when Lycan has a point he wants to get across then he'll get that point across even if he needs to bite the teen to do it.

 _Wouldn't be the first time._ Snorting at the thought Silver meets the wolf's eyes. What he finds there isn't... _exactly_...what he was expecting. He jerks back, leaping to his feet with a growl. "No! Absolutely not! There is no way in Hell I am doing that!" Lycan, for his credit, doesn't leap at the teen. That's not to say the way his jaws slam shut with a loud _snap_ isn't fearsome in its own right. He pins his ears to his head, snarling at Silver in a way that the teen translates to be a very open-ended _You're being an idiot._

"So what if I am?" Silver snaps back at the wolf. "I am not going back and asking them to forgive me! I'm not some child that needs to be protected anymore! I was taller than you before you were even born!" Lycan recoils at that, his ears rising in shock at the comment and Silver flinches. "No, wait!" The wolf doesn't listen. He huffs at the teen and trots off into the forest without a second glance.

When he can no longer see the pack leader Silver groans, falling to sit back down on the rock. "Damn it, Silver. You really are an idiot if you just ran off your best friend." It's always been a sore point between him and the pack—since Deliora's reign in fact—the difference in the length of their lives. How he has seen each wolf in the pack from pack leader to cub come and go over the last fifty years. And how it has pained him when he's realized a wolf's disappearance means they won't be coming back. Only...because of Lycan, the sore spot hasn't been quite so bad. Not when the wolf has been teaching him to live in the moment and not worry about what is to come tomorrow. _And I just had to throw it back in his face._ With another groan he drops his face into his hands, wishing these past two days had never happened.

"What is a youngling like yourself doing upsetting a Guardian?" Silver looks up, shocked to find a being standing in the shadow of a tree branch. When he got there, the teen has no clue. Why he didn't sense him earlier, Silver's kicking himself for that one already.

"Wo're you?"

 _ **XxX**_

Gray skids to a stop near the edge of the alley. Tilting his head he narrows in on a strong heartbeat walking down the street. Why it would be out near midnight if it's not heading for the bar is not his concern. He leaps onto a nearby dumpster, jumping into the air to lob a small ball of ice at his brother before landing in the alley and causally emerging from the shadows to follow his target.

They've been observing the streets closest to the bar for a few hours now and with the ever aging night, he knows they need to take their chance with this human if they're to find food for their pregnant mate tonight. Quieting his steps as he approaches, he slows down, taking a deep inhale of the human's scent before dropping back a few paces. The human in question never notices. From above a hiss reaches his ears and he quirks a barely noticeable nod as if glancing at the ground under his feet. He can practically hear the fire-type's excited rumble in response.

As they approach the end of the block Gray extends his senses. Finding nothing but himself, his brother, and their pray in the immediate area he acts fast. A floor of nearly invisible ice strikes the ground underneath and in front of the human causing him to slip. The human yelps, hitting the ground hard and Gray wastes no time. He rushes forward, pulling the human into the darkness of the alley before anyone can investigate the sound.

In the alley, he tosses the human to his brother then glances back at the ice, a mere thought enough to dissipate the evidence of his action. When he looks back at Natsu he scowls.

"Oi! Don't kill him!"

The pinkett huffs, glaring at him over the now prone human laying in his arms. "Relax, Ice for Brains, I didn't kill him. Check for yourself if you believe me." He already has checked, truth be told. He just wants to mess with his mate. Natsu drops the human to the ground, pointing at it with his chin. "You gonna restrain him or what?"

Glaring at him, he walks forward to do just that, his glowing hands already holding a half-formed pair of cuffs when he notices his mate freeze. He pays it no mind—he knows his brother will protect him—his focus solely on getting the human bound so it won't run if it regains consciousness while they're distracted. After he's hogtied the human's hands to its feet he stands up, glancing over his shoulder where he now senses the female standing on the building above him.

He quirks his lips in something between a smirk and a scowl. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Come back to ruin another night's hunt?" He's angry at the female. Not only for injuring their son but he's also placing the blame for their son running on her shoulders as well because if Silver was right then she's Coven. _And Coven needs to burn._

At that thought, he's tempted to tell his mate just to let loose but he knows if he does then their prey will burn as well and if their prey burns they'll be sleeping in the hammock not just for the next week but for the next _year_.

"Let the human go and I'll let you go with your lives." The female snarls, her hand beginning to glow red. The glow is all it takes for him to decide how to play this game.

He grins, exchanging a glance with his brother before bending down to pick up the human by the handle the icy binding conveniently creates. "I don't think we will. This is our prey, we caught it fair and square. If you want it you're gonna have to claw it from our cold dead hands, Requip user." He may be pushing it a little by calling her out on her magic but he'll just call it a gut feeling he's able to do it.

As he expects, his words piss the female off even more, the red glow in her hand quickly forming into a sword. She points it at them and Natsu begins to growl—a low tone Gray knows to be a nonverbal warning—even as his hands begin to glow with the beginnings of his own magic. Gray starts walking, pausing only to set a hand on his mate's shoulder in a silent _let's go_. He hears Natsu snort then turn on his heel to fall behind him in a gesture to protect he and their prey.

They don't get farther then maybe ten feet when Gray's hearing picks up the subtle sound of scuffling feet. It's not a new sound to him, he's heard it too many times over the course of his life to know what it means. Without thinking he throws the prey in the air, circles around his mate, and throws up walls of ice three feet thick just as the female's sword comes within striking distance of his brother's back.

For all her talk, he finds the female stunned at the speed in which her sword is frozen nearly up to the hilt in ice. It doesn't matter to him. He snarls in anger, _real_ anger that one of their kind would have the guts to stab an opponent in the back. He goes for a low sweep, knocking the female on her back even as he wordlessly spells a sword of ice into one hand. Stepping on her arm to pin her, he aims the sword at her neck.

She scowls, glaring at him and out of the corner of his eye he sees a red glow. She doesn't even have a chance to finish her Requip spell before a fireball hits close to her hand, shaking her focus and canceling the spell. His brother appears at his side, his foot holding down the female's other arm.

Gray growls, easily mimicking Natsu's with enough power to have the female paling in fear. "First you hurt our son, then you try to stab my mate in the back." He adds more pressure to her arm. "Give us one good reason why we shouldn't end your life here and now." When no answer comes right away, the ice user presses the tip of the sword closer to her throat. Between last night and tonight, he's all too ready just to do away with her and be done with it. Too much has happened too fast and his nerves are rubbing raw with fear of history repeating itself.

"Wait!" The ice user glances up at the new voice to find a male dressed in a white trench coat, his dark blue hair slicked back and his mustache neatly trimmed, standing ten feet in front of them, his hands up in a show of no harm though his expression is serious. When the male attempts to take a step closer, his brother growls, flinging a fireball at his feet to force him to stop. He pulls his foot back, taking another step back for good measure and grimaces. "Let Erza go. She didn't mean it."

His brother snorts, a flame flaring to life to show his aggravation. "Didn't mean it my ass. What happened to honor among our kind?" His eyes sharpen. "Where is the honor in stabbing someone in the back?!"

Newcomer, Gray decides his name to be in lieu of not caring to ask for the male's actual name, grimaces. "She's young, she hasn't had the chance to learn of the code."

Both he and his brother share a look, one thought passing between them. _Bullshit._ Before they'd even reached their second century they'd learned of the code of honor among their kind. The code—a set of unsaid laws between Vampires be it Rogue or Coven meant to curtail some of the bloodlusts all younglings have during their first three centuries. Don't steal someone else's prey, don't stab someone in the back, never go after a mated pair's young. Things of the ilk taught from senior to youngling to procure the continuation of Vampire kind.

The female under their feet, they can tell is older then three centuries if younger than themselves, therefore, she has to have known of the code. Gray scowls. _Even Silver knows of the code._ He's damn proud of that fact, that Silver has enough honor to never willingly or knowingly break the code.

"Please," Newcomer's plea draws the ice type's attention back to the situation at hand. He arches an eyebrow, watching the male gesture to the redhead under their feet. "let her go, and I'll make sure Elder doles out her punishment." Now that is information they can use.

Gray turns to his brother, tilting his chin in question. Natsu huffs but extinguishes his flames, turning to walk back to where the ice user finds his brother had thrown their unconscious prey. He follows shortly after, throwing one last glare at the Covens before both he and Natsu wave a hand of their magic and take off full tilt in the opposite direction of their home.

 _ **XxX**_

Elder arches an eyebrow, lowering himself to sit on the tree branch. "Who am I? Perhaps I should be asking you that instead?"

When he'd left the Coven early that morning he'd set out to find the Guardians, the pack of wolves protecting this section of the barrier including the town and ask a few questions of their pack leader. Suffice to say, he's quite surprised to find said pack leader in an argument with a youngling who looks to be in his second century if that. He's known the wolves to get along with some of their kind to pass through the forest but normally those they get along with tending to have seen several centuries of travel, never those in the age of bloodlust let alone should still be with their parents.

 _Speaking of..._ The youngling before him shrugs, seemingly intent to stay in his seat. "Don't matter to me," He pauses and Elder can see his eyes narrowing. "but I know I haven't seen you around before. Did you just enter the forest?"

He's intrigued, that's for sure. Elder hasn't seen a youngling in some time that carries the same amount of knowledge and experience of the forest as he can tell this one does. "You could say that. My home is here but I tend to travel from time to time."

The youngling perks up, as if Elder's statement interests him. "Oh yeah, Dad said something about our kind having to tra—" He stops halfway through his statement and facepalms, looking at Elder with apologetic eyes. "Sorry, Mama would skin me alive if she knew I was throwing away her manner lessons. My name's Silver, what's yours?"

Elder chuckles, dropping down from his branch to approach the youngling. "You may call me Makarov but most of my friends and family just call me Gramps."

Silver tilts his head, his navy eyes alight. "You must have a lot of family if they call you that." Elder nods and the youngling huffs. "All I have are my parents." Then he pauses. "Well, them and a sibling on the way." The way he says it, in a tone filled with uncertainty has Makarov arching an eyebrow.

"It sounds as if you're not happy to have a sibling on the way."

Silver winces. "I am, don't get me wrong, I can't wait to meet them." The Elder frowns, sensing a 'but' coming up. After a minute the youngling sighs. "You're old, you must've seen a lot of centuries right?"

If he wasn't used to leading a Coven Makarov might've been thrown for a loop with how fast the youngling's emotions change. As it is, he's had more than enough experience to know when to wait for an indecisive mind to gather its thoughts. And so, he nods, remaining quiet while he watches Silver's expressions flit across the spectrum. The teen chews on his bottom lip, clearly debating on whether he should tell some stranger he only just met or run in the other direction. Makarov can see it though when the youngling makes up his mind. He turns to look him in the eye, a silent question in his eyes even as he speaks.

"Have you ever heard of a pair adopting an orphan babe?" He has to pause at that one. It's one of the unspoken laws of the code not to mess with another pair's babe but if they're orphaned?

"No, I can't say I have." Watching the youngling's eyes begin to cool into a mask of indifference he quickly adds, "That's not to say it couldn't happen. There are many of our kind out there and with each their own morals. I'd say it depends on the pair if they decide to adopt an orphan."

Like that the mask cracks. His shoulders slump and his lips twitch into a small—he wouldn't call it a smile—smirk. "My mother was killed by Hunters when I was a babe. My father survived but it was only thanks to his brother and Mama that we escaped. I don't exactly know what happened, Dad only explained it to me a little while ago but Dad and Mama I guess adopted me as their son as well. They've been there for as long as I can remember and I love them a lot but," his tone dips and he falls quiet, looking at his lap. He sighs, shaking his head. "Mama, Dad, and Pops mated and now Mama's expecting a babe and I don't know. I guess…" He trails off but Makarov has a pretty good idea what's going through his head.

"You're afraid that they'll be too focused on the babe to worry about you." It's not a question but Silver nods anyway, his eyes once more on his lap. Even to Makarov's old eyes, the youngling is ashamed of something he shouldn't have to be. He walks up to him then and sets a hand on his shoulder. Making sure to keep his expression neutral he looks him in the eye.

"Silver, I've lived for millennia. I've seen civilizations rise and fall, war rage across the land, Humans and our kind alike die for plenty of reasons but let me tell you something. A parent's love for their child can conquer the impossible." He watches navy blue eyes widen just the slightest at his words but still continues on. He wants to make sure this youngling knows how important he is to this world. "If your parents didn't love you, you wouldn't be here today now would you?"

He knows the question will trip him up, it's supposed to. How else will he learn? The youngling opens his mouth to reply but stops, jaws closing with a snap, and his brows furrow as he thinks. After a minute his expression smoothes out and he smiles, this time the gesture is wide and bright enough. "I guess Lycan was right, I really am an idiot if I couldn't see it for myself."

"My boy, it's all a part of growing up. You'll see, everything will work out in the end." Makarov chuckles, patting Silver's shoulder. The tension bleeds from the youngling's form like water on rocks and when he sees him nod, Makarov glances at the sky for an idea of the time. "Now, it's pretty late. Don't you think you should be getting back to your parents?"

Silver grins sheepishly, a hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "About that...I may have gotten into an argument with Dad and Pops last night and stormed off." He shrugs. "It's part of the reason I was out here with Lycan, he's usually the only one that understands me."

Elder arches an eyebrow, both at the reason and the name the youngling uses. He's heard the boy say it a couple times now. Typically he isn't one to change subjects as quickly as younglings are but he's curious, both of the boy and the Guardians he seems to know so well. "This," He pauses, trying to ensure he has the correct name. "Lycan, is he the Guardian you were speaking to earlier?"

"Guardian?" The teen cocks his head, frowning at him. "If you mean the wolves, then yeah. The wolf I was arguing with earlier is the leader of the pack. I've known the pack since I found the first leader as a pup half a century ago and it's become something of a tradition to name them."

 _Interesting._ Humming to himself with this new information, Elder grins. Now he has a way to make sure the youngling returns to his parents and he gets to learn of why the pack appears to adore him. "Why don't you tell me more about them?"

His question apparently makes the youngling very happy for Silver leaps to his feet, grinning at Makarov. "Better yet, why don't I take you to the den? I gotta apologize to Lycan anyway." Before he can dash off in the direction Elder believes the wolf disappeared, he grabs the youngling's wrist halting his momentum. When he looks back at him in confusion, Makarov shakes his head in amusement.

"My boy, it's much too late for that tonight. How do you think they'll feel if you go traipsing around their den at this hour? Would you want someone doing the same to you and your family's home?" After a moment of thought, Silver shakes his head and Makarov nods, his soft but serious enough for the youngling to listen. "Show me to them tomorrow, when the pack is up and about. If you would, I'll meet you here at sunset so that we may meet them."

He's pushing his luck, Elder knows, by asking this of the youngling but as he sees it, it is better for him to meet the boy than one of his Coven who seems so ready to bay for blood rather than ask for peace. Silver pouts then sighs and nods. "Okay, here at sundown I can do. Thanks, Gramps, now I gotta get going and see if I can try and work things out with my parents." With that he lets the youngling go, watching as he disappears through the trees as nothing more than a blur.

When he's completely gone, Makarov shakes his head, looking up at the sky full of stars in thought. _An intriguing youngling indeed._

 _ **XxX**_

Rolling down an asphalt paved street, the spokes of a bicycle wheel clack against an old playing card. As the bike cruises down the street, the teenaged boy riding it reaches into a white pouch in the basket, withdrawing a bundle of paper. With a ring from the bell on the bike's handlebars, he tosses it at a doorway. In this way the newspaper boy continues on with his route, working street by street from one side of town to the other.

Along the way he waves to the early rising people getting on with their own morning routines, often shouting a greeting or giving one in return before continuing on his way. In front of one building, an old bar with closed shutters covered in peeling paint and a sagging porch he slows to a stop. He grabs four copies of the newspaper from his bag and leaning his bike against the railing worn smooth by many hands over the years walks up the creaking steps to the currently closed double doors. Without a second thought, he knocks on one door only to jump when yelling sounds from the normally quiet building. The boy, fearing the unknown circumstances, leaves the newspapers and rushes back to his bike. Glancing over his shoulder, he pedals away quickly, muttering under his breath as he does.

Inside the building, things are very much more chaotic than they had been the morning before. The entire floor of the bar is clear of vampires, nearly everyone scurrying to the higher levels of the second floor or even higher onto rafters. Only four remain on the floor.

Mirajane, for all she normally smiles, is grim, her crimson eyes flicking between the shouting match holding everyone's attention and the redhead attempting to ignore said arguing by pulling apart the slice of cake laid in front of her.

Standing on one side of a table clearly having been put through its paces with claw marks littering the surface, Laxus snarls at the elder male. "And I say we deal with it ourselves. Gramps _left_ that means your dusty ass is in charge of this Coven and that means _you_ deal out punishment!" He slams his hand down on the table to make his point but misjudges how much strength the poor furniture can handle.

The table splits down the middle and hits the floor with a loud _crash_. On the other side of the debris, Macao scowls, his arms over his chest. If anyone were to ask he'd say it's just a habit but the old vampire knows it's to stop himself from lashing out and beating the—in his eyes—cocky upstart into submission. "No," He grinds his teeth. "Elder will be back soon, we will wait for his decision on what her punishment will be."

The spectators miss the minute flinch that comes from the redhead...Mira does not. And her grim expression melts into one of empathy but she knows there is nothing she can do. Coven Laws demand the Elder deal with a rule breaker. If she were to attempt anything before their Elder could mete out punishment it could very well turn on her as well.

"If you won't do it," The hiss from her mate draws her attention and she looks up to find Laxus turning to them. "then I will. Coven Laws must be upheld or else we lose our standing with the other Covens." He opens his hand, allowing electricity to fill that gaps between his fingers as he approaches the redhead.

"No, you don't! Flames of Suppression!" A large strand of purple flame shoots out from the elder male's hand wrapping around Laxus' torso, pinning his arms to his sides and forcing the blond male into the floor in the span of several seconds. Macao exhales, slowly approaching the Lighting user. "We are going to wait for Elder. Erza has a right to plead her case and that is what she will do. If she is to die then it will be on Elder's orders, not before."

Mirajane, though as enthralled by Macao's control as the others in their Coven, is the first to notice a familiar presence standing off to the side. She sighs in relief, bowing her head to Elder out of respect. "Welcome back, Elder, how was your visit?"

Elder nods in acknowledgment of her question but right away, the barmaid can tell his attention is solely on the fight in front of her. He scowls, leaping onto the bar to have a better view of his Coven. When all eyes, colored and crimson alike are on him he looks to Macao.

"Speak."

The purple flame user coughs, gesturing to Erza. "The Rogues appeared again last night. Erza tracked them down while they were hunting and interrupted them. I'm not sure what exactly was said between them though. I only got there after they had pinned her and were getting ready to kill her. I managed to convince them to leave her and they took their prey and fled."

Makarov nods in understanding and Laxus snorts, glaring at the redhead. "You're trying to save her!" He fights against his bindings, snarling at the elder male. "She disobeyed Coven Law, _broke_ the code all for some revenge to her pride!" Hearing the Lightning user's words he arches an eyebrow. He will get around to getting her side of the story but first…

"Let him go, Macao." The elder male nods, his flames receding into his hand and Elder glares at Laxus. "You will sit in that spot until I tell you otherwise." Tensing at the stern tone in his grandfather's voice, Laxus sits up, crossing his legs underneath him but doesn't otherwise move from his position on the floor. Satisfied one mess is dealt with, Makarov turns to the redhead. "Let us hear your side, Erza so we may decide how bad these claims are."

Erza bows her head, her eyes focused solely on the plate in front of her. "It is as Laxus said, Elder. I disobeyed your order and threatened the Rogues. When they turned to leaves I attempted to stab the Fire user in his back and was only stopped by the Ice user's superior reflexes. They were going to kill me if Macao had not shown up when he did and convinced them to let me go."

By the end of her explanation, Elder finds his eyes narrowing on the Requip user. The tone in which she spoke, he doubts any of the others would've heard it but he did and he knows there's something that is missing. "Erza, take us through the entire counter, from beginning to end. I wanna know everything that was said." Hisses and murmurs of surprise greet his order but he doesn't care. The Requip user saw _something_ during her interaction with the Rogues last night and it's just a gut feeling but over his millennia of life, he's learned more than once to listen to his gut when it comes to the important things.

Despite her own shock and confusion, the redhead nods, taking a deep breath to order her thoughts before beginning.

"After the sun went down, I left to go explore the alleyways to see if I could pick up any scent of the Rogues. About an hour in I managed to find the scent of the Ice user in a three-block radius of here and decided to follow it. I can't say for sure but I think the Ice user was scoping out the bar with how his scent kept sweeping back and forth in the alleys. He never came within three blocks of the bar but when it veered off toward the townhouse development I decided to take my chances and follow it. An hour before midnight, the Ice user found a man returning to his home and caught him using ice to make the man slip. When he threw him in the alley I took to the rooftop only to find the Fire user knocking the Human unconscious."

She stops, her lips turning into a frown as the gears turn in her head. Then she shakes her head, returning her gaze to Elder.

"They were discussing binding the Human when the Fire user caught sight of me, though the Ice user didn't even look in my direction until he'd completely bound the Human's limbs. He became smug and cocky asking if I'd come back to and I quote _ruin another night's hunt,_ " She blushes in embarrassment, ducking her head. "I let my anger get the best of me and ordered them to let the Human go and I'd let them live. He said that if I wanted the Human back I'd have to take it from their dead hands and when they turned their backs I lept at the Fire user intending to take both down at once. The Ice user surprised me though, somehow managing to freeze my sword up to the hilt in ice and pinned me with a sword of his own before I had a chance to determine what had happened. When I tried to summon another sword the Fire user pinned my other arm and the Ice user said—"

Erza goes pales, her hands shaking in terror. As the others whisper in horror Makarov only arches an eyebrow. The Rogues had admitted something and something important from the looks of it. He snaps his fingers, gaining her attention. "What did he say, Erza?"

She swallows, looking at him with wide eyes. "Double—" Pausing, she swallows again, her voice no more than a whisper. "Double mate marks."

If she had yelled, the words would not have been heard any more clearly. Shouts of disbelief, cries of confusion, and a myriad of other emotions swamp the bar before Makarov holds up an open hand. Almost immediately the noise drops to zero and he pins her with a serious look.

"Explain."

The Requip user frowns, chocolate eyes flicking out over the Coven before returning her gaze to him. "I hadn't been paying attention at the time but in the light of the Fire user's flames, I noticed markings on their necks. I really hadn't thought about it until I recalled what the Ice user had said. He'd said _first you hurt my son then you try to stab my mate in the back._ "

The meaning of her words does not escape him. It's not a mated pair of Rogues in their town but a _trio_ , nearly unheard of anywhere in their world for the simple fact that their kind are selfishly protective beings that will attack anything that threatens their lives or the lives of the ones they love. Par for the course, the part of the code saying in big bold letters _do not touch a pair's young_. There's a very good chance of someone dying if it were to be attempted.

He scowls, the ruckus the Coven is causing beginning to test his ire. At a particularly loud yell, he turns to the Coven. " _ENOUGH!"_ Sure of their attention he points at a wall in the direction he knows the closest edge of the forest to be. "For those of you who are able to stay calm and lend a clear mind to this issue, you may stay. Everyone else, _go away!"_ Some of them, he knows will be aggravated with the choices but at this point in time, Makarov has more important things on his mind than whether or not he's hurt his children's pride. _At least,_ He muses, watching half his Coven pour out of open windows and doors in the direction he points. _They're not idiotic enough to realize that I'm not sending them away permanently...on second thought…_ "Spread the word, everyone may return by sundown!"

Receiving agreements from those final few slipping out of the building he looks up to only find a handful of his children left. _Should've known._ he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Alright, gather 'round. Let's figure out how we're gonna handle this." As they move he counts Mirajane, Laxus, Gildarts—a redhead who is more Rogue than Coven but still drops by for stints of time before disappearing again—Macao, and Erza. The last remaining since she _is_ in fact in trouble and is the only real source of their information at the moment. Sharing a look with Macao he turns to Erza. "Who all have you seen?"

Pursing her lips, Erza stares at the opposite wall in thought. After a minute she shrugs. "The Ice user, Fire user, and Snow user. That's it."

To his surprise, it's Gildarts that shows a reaction, leaning back in his stool with a foul expression. "If that's true and the Fire and Ice are mated with a third then why haven't we seen the female yet?"

"You won't see her." It's Macao who speaks, his lips pursed as if he ate something sour. "She's in hiding and for a reason. Why else do you think her mates would hunt prey and _take it with them_? Humans have been going missing, yes, but it's almost as if they just disappear." He looks up, his eyes locking onto Elder's. "It's what I would do, it's what I _did_ when Enna was pregnant with Romeo. She hid in the lair while I hunted her prey and after she fed I destroyed the body to get rid of the evidence."

Makarov frowns, one hand cupping his chin. If the conclusions they're reaching are true then it wouldn't surprise him the Rogues have been so edge lately and more willing to flee then fight. Throwing everything he's learned in with the fact of the youngling he met the night before and an inkling of dread fills his bones. Especially considering the youngling couldn't have been more than two centuries. Two _powerful,_ aggressive, protective fathers, a female most likely heavy with child, and a skittish, headstrong youngling does not an easy solution make. Having heard everything he has, Makarov is almost a hundred percent positive the gods must have some odd plans for the group. But whatever their plan maybe he knows one thing for sure…

He and his Coven will do anything in its power to protect them.

"Find the son," He decides, turning serious eyes on the group. His gut tells him, he already knows the youngling's name but he won't be the one to tell them that. Let the boy trust them enough to divulge that information himself. "He will be our best bet to get close to the Rogues. If we sway him, _show_ him that Coven is for protecting and helping Nakama he will be able to help us sway the parents. Do not, for the love of the Coven spook him or give him reason to fear us more."

His grandson scowls, crossing his arms over his chest. "And what of the parents? They won't like us being so close to him."

"My original orders stand." Elder waves off the question. "Attempt to interact with them but don't try to fight them. They're on edge, and will most likely try to kill anyone they deem a threat to their family. You're dismissed, go track down the others before they do something to take down the forest." All but one of the group leave to look for their wayward family. Sensing the Requip user's presence he turns to her.

Her eyes are wide, pleading forgiveness even as she asks, "And what of me, Elder? What is my punishment?"

Makarov grins. "My dear, you will come with me to a meeting I have at sundown."

* * *

 **Deadpool: I came in like a wrecking ball! I never meant to start a wAAAARRRR!**

 **Grizz: *flinches* Damn Deadpool, knew I should've never let him touch my phone.**

 ***crack***

 **Grizz: *growls* What was that?! *looks over couch***

 **DP: *hides shattered chandelier behind back* Nothing! Just testing the ceiling's integrity.**

 **Grizz: *sighs* If you break it you fix it!**

 **DP: *grins* I'm an angel with a shotgun!**

 **Grizz: *thumps head on laptop* That is the last time I let him near my playlists *hears click and looks up* Wade! I don't care if you're wearing wings and a halo but if you fire that shotgun I'm kicking your ass.**

 **DP: Still you come and you're calling me by name. So here I am, lifting up my heart to the one who holds the stars.**

 **Grizz: *groans* *grabs headphones, plugs into laptop* *sighs* Right, sorry 'bout that. Wade's being...Wade, I guess you could say. That and we're both really excited that I managed to get this finished so soon. Also, looooong ass chapter. I'm happy with it though. Once I sat down and started writing it just sorta poured itself into shape. Definitely worth it with everything that's happening.**

 **Introduced some new characters, expanded on Vamp culture a bit, got into Silver's head oh! And I even got to dig around in some of Gray's feelings. On top of that, I've noticed that this story has kinda I guess veered? Into a direction I wasn't exactly looking at when I first came up with the idea or even as I've been writing the story. That direction being the focus has narrowed some.**

 **I started with just swinging between each of the trio spending time with Silver and have somehow ended up focusing on Natsu and Gray's views of the world.** _ **But**_ **and hear me out here if you think about it, their views are important because they're** _ **teaching**_ **these views to Silver. They're not exactly teaching him to hate what the Covens stand for but more of don't go running blind into something that may get you into trouble. Er, okay and maybe a little blind hatred for the Covens. Do you blame them though?**

 **Either way I really like the way it's been going and I honestly think Imma keep it this way. Yes, the light has backed off of Lucy some but she is still part of the trio, she is still important to the story and she will make more appearances but at this point in time the lime light is pointed more towards the brothers and Silver.**

 **As usual, if there's anything you don't understand, or you're confused about just let me know and I'll see what I can do to explain it. Now, onto reviews.**

 **Rae,** ***evil eye* Cruel much? You'll get your chapter of LBB just be patient. Oh! Also, my brother is a pain in my ass. My wifi got cut out, I'm temporarily banned from the library, and I have no money to buy something from Mcds to use their wifi so I'm sorry if I haven't been able to check in with the co-op stuff and things. I would use my phone but I'm restricted to only a few Gigs of data this month and my brother decided to blow most of it while I was asleep. I'll try and get around to somewhere with wifi soon to hop on though. Promise!**

 **KJacket,** **be patient young padawan, good things come to those who wait. *smiles sweetly***

 **Therashae,** ***grins* Thank you, I enjoy writing it.**

 **Pixie Pixel!** **Did you lose your password to your account or you just being lazy? Ain't often I see you using a guest account on reviews. *smirks* Nothing that destructive** _ **yet**_ **my old friend but soon, very soon indeed.**

 **DP: *screams* I'm waking up to ash and dust! I wipe my brow and sweat my rust!**

 **Grizz: *yelps* Damnit, Deadpool! Get out of here! *grabs shotgun on table* *chucks it at Wade***

 **DP: I'm radioacti— *passes out***

 **Grizz: Yosh, peace and quiet for an hour. Anyway, Pix. I hope you saw my review on your oneshot. And to everyone else. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I have a lot more planned to drop over the day so keep your eyes open because, it's Halloween and there are chapters to come! *cackles***

 **Happy Halloween folks!**

 **Grizzly out for the night.**


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